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More Intel mobile processors surface

Though Intel updated its price list with new mobile processors, some chip prices, including those for new mobile Core i3s, aren't publicly disclosed.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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While Intel updated its price list with a number of new mobile processors over the weekend, a few didn't show up on the list.

Intel on Sunday added new mobile Core i5 and i7 processors prominently to its price list, among other new mobile chips, but didn't cite a new mobile Core i3 processor, a Core i5 variant, and two mobile Pentium chips.

Why? "These SKUs are considered transactional, which means they are targeted at retail and SMB (small- and medium-size businesses) and are subject to terms and conditions with (PC makers) that target those markets. We don't disclose the pricing on those," Intel spokeswoman Connie Brown said today.

The Core i3 is the lower-end Core i series processor SKU, falling below the pricier Core i5 and Core i7 chips. Core i3 processors typically lack a technology called Turbo Boost, which dynamically adjusts the performance of the chip depending on what an application demands.

Pentium processors are slotted under Core i series chips because they lack any advanced features, such as Turbo Boost and hyper-threading, which adds virtual processing cores to the physical cores, increasing performance.

Taking a look at the unlisted processors, the Core i3-380M, which is used in products such as the Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart all-in-one desktop and Acer laptops, is rated at 2.53GHz, has 3MB of cache memory, and includes hyper-threading. Interestingly, Intel does not show any mobile Core i3 processors on its price list, though they are listed in Intel's database.

A Core i5 processor, the i5-460M, does not appear on Intel price lists, either. It's rated at 2.53GHz but can jump to 2.8GHz in Turbo Boost mode.

Finally, the Pentium P6100 and P6200 are rated at 2GHz and 2.13GHz, respectively. The P6100 is used in Toshiba, Lenovo, and Acer laptops, among other products. The P6200 is expected to appear in laptops soon.

(Via CPU World)