Over the U.S. holiday weekend, Intel quietly released 16 new “Sandy Bridge” processors — 11 desktop and five mobile models. The CPUs range from a 1.6GHz, single-core Celeron G440 ($37) for low-cost desktops to the 2.7GHz, quad-core Core i7-2960XM ($1,096) for high-end portables.

The Labor Day weekend saw the quiet release of 16 new "Sandy Bridge" processors, as well as price cuts to six existing models. The changes were first noticed by the German Computerbase website, then reiterated in English by Tom's Hardware.

Though they come on the eve of the Intel Developer Forum (which begins Sept. 13 in San Francisco), as well as the anticipated launch of AMD's Bulldozer processors, the new Sandy Bridge additions are pretty much the same as the other "second-generation" processors Intel announced back in January. That is, they put the CPU, memory controller, and GPU (graphics processing unit) all on one die, and once again use a 32nm production process.

And, there are those of us who felt Intel had more than enough Core models already! However, the new parts doubtless give the chip giant a way to sell parts that were meant to be offered more expensively, but failed tests regarding clock speed, cache size, cores, or thermal limitations.

As Tom's Hardware's Doug Crowthers points out, the introductions also provide a way to fight back against AMD's Llano CPUs. For example, the new Core i3-2125 offers a 3.3GHz clock speed and HD 3000 video for around the same price as the current AMD A8-3850 ($134 vs $140).

We're surprised — as ever — to see Intel marketers persisting with the ancient Pentium and Celeron monikers. Possibly relevant to embedded devices will be the Pentium G630T, which has dual cores, a 2.3GHz clock speed, a 3MB L3 cache, a 35-Watt TDP, and a $70 price. Meanwhile, Celeron G530T and G440 models have dual or single cores, respectively, and also provide 35-Watt TDPs.

Model	Cores / threads	CPU clock speed (basic/turbo)	L3 Cache	Graphics	Graphics clock (basic/turbo)	TDP (Watts)	Price
I5-2320	4 / 4	3.0 / 3.3 GHz	6 MB	HD 2000	850 / 1100 MHz	95	$ 177
I3-2130	2 / 4	3.4 / – GHz	3 MB	HD 2000	850 / 1100 MHz	65	$ 138
I3-2125	2 / 4	3.3 / – GHz	3 MB	HD 3000	850 / 1100 MHz	65	$ 134
I3-2120T	2 / 4	2.6 / – GHz	3 MB	HD 2000	650 / 1100 MHz	35	$ 127
Pentium G860	2 / 2	3.0 / – GHz	3 MB	HD	850 / 1100 MHz	65	$ 86
Pentium G630	2 / 2	2.7 / – GHz	3 MB	HD	850 / 1100 MHz	65	$ 75
Pentium G630T	2 / 2	2.3 / – GHz	3 MB	HD	650 / 1100 MHz	35	$ 70
Celeron G540	2 / 2	2.5 / – GHz	2 MB	HD	850 / 1000 MHz	65	$ 52
Celeron G530	2 / 2	2.4 / – GHz	2 MB	HD	850 / 1000 MHz	65	$ 42
Celeron G530T	2 / 2	2.0 / – GHz.	2 MB	HD	650 / 1100 MHz	35	$ 47
Celeron G440	1 / 1	1.6 / – GHz	1 MB	HD	650 / 1000 MHz	35	$ 37

New "Sandy Bridge" processors for desktops

Model	Cores / threads	CPU clock (basic/turbo)	L3 cache	GPU clock (basic/turbo)	TDP (Watts)	Price
Core i7-2960XM	4 / 8	2.7 / 3.7 GHz	8 MB	650 / 1,300 MHz	55	$ 1,096
Core i7 2860QM	4 / 8	2.5 / 3.6 GHz	8 MB	650 / 1,300 MHz	45	$ 568
Core i7 2760QM	4 / 8	2.4 / 3.5 GHz	6 MB	650 / 1,300 MHz	45	$ 378
Core i7-2640m	2 / 4	2.8 / 3.5 GHz	4 MB	650 / 1,300 MHz	35	$ 346
B840 Celeron	2 / 2	1.9 / – GHz	2 MB	650 / 950 MHz	35	$ 86

New "Sandy Bridge" processors for mobile devices

Meanwhile, Intel also announced price cuts for six current Sandy Bridge CPUs. Ranging from two to six percent, they're listed in the table below.

Model	Cores / threads	CPU clock (basic/turbo)	L3 cache	Graphics	old price	new price
I5-2390T	2 / 4	2.7 / 3.5 GHz	3 MB	HD 2000	$ 195	$ 184
I5-2400S	4 / 4	2.5 / 3.3 GHz	6 MB	HD 2000	$ 195	$ 184
I5-2405S	4 / 4	2.5 / 3.3 GHz	6 MB	HD 3000	$ 205	$ 201
I5-2500T	4 / 4	2.3 / 3.3 GHz	6 MB	HD 2000	$ 216	$ 205
I5-2500S	4 / 4	2.7 / 3.7 GHz	6 MB	HD 2000	$ 216	$ 205
Core i7-2600S	4 / 8	2.8 / 3.8 GHz	8 MB	HD 2000	$ 306	$ 294

Lower prices for selected "Sandy Bridge" processors

Jonathan Angel can be reached at [email protected] and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.

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