Intel i3 530 coming soon

Canadian e-tailer A-Power lists 2.9 Ghz chip at $152

The dizzying pace of technology moves onward with the sudden appearance of Core i3 chips on A-Power’s website.

The i3 dubbed Clarkdale is smaller than the i7 chips released on September, 32 nm versus 45 nm. We should expect a new motherboard for the socket 1156 to cut costs. Desktops based on this chip should be $100 to $200 cheaper than existing computers of the same power.

The chips only have 2 cores instead of 4 cores but are said to multi-threaded so a 2 core processor is running 4 threads. The CPU and graphic processor are now on one chip. The chip will run at lower power settings compared with the i7, 73 watts compared with 95 watts.

The i3 is intended for desktop computers in home and standard business market and low power laptops. The models include i5-660, i3-540, and G6950.

Intel announced earlier that the chips are in production but would not be released until early 2010. They don’t want to upset the Christmas market with word of cheaper computers to come; however, that is always the reality in the computer business. Competition and software demands force Intel to keep making faster, better and cheaper processors.

Ironically, Windows 7 costs about the same as the price of this new processor which tells you that Microsoft is overcharging for its O/S in a non-competitive market.