An online retailer is taking orders for a Hewlett-Packard laptop that includes Intel's latest Core i3 processor, providing details of the chip maker's next-generation laptop processor ahead of the product's official launch.
ECost, a U.S. online store, is taking orders for an HP Pavilion dv6-2157sb laptop with the Core i3-330m processor. The processor runs at a speed of 2.13GHz, according to the listing.
Intel last week said it would officially release the next generation of laptop and desktop processors at the Consumer Electronics Show, which will be held in Las Vegas January 7-10. The chips will be available under the Core i3, i5 and i7 brands and will offer better application and graphics performance than Intel's existing Core 2 Duo processors.
The new chips integrate the CPU and graphics processor in a single package, which could improve graphics performance while drawing less power. The graphics chips will be able to play back full 1080p high-definition video and decode Blu-ray movies.
Better performance also comes from running more threads on each core for faster task execution. A dual-core Core i3 chip, for example, will be able to run four threads simultaneously, compared with two threads on existing dual-core Core 2 Duo processors. Intel's new Turbo Boost technology, featured in the i3, can ratchet up the speed of a processor core or even shut off a core when not needed to save power.
An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the laptop listing. HP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier, a Canadian retailer, A-Power, listed the Core i3-530 chip for desktops running at 2.9GHz. That listing has been pulled off the Web site. The dual-core chip included 512KB of L2 cache and 4MB of L3 cache.
The new chips are part of Intel's Westmere architecture and will be manufactured using the latest 32-nanometer process. Intel's existing chips are made using a 45-nm process.
Westmere is based on the same micro-architecture underpinnings as existing Nehalem chips, which are made using the 45-nm process. Nehalem chips include Core i5, Core i7 desktop and Xeon 5500 server chips.
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