Intel is adding two new low power chips to its line of Ivy Bridge processors. In April the company launched the first Ivy Bridge quad-core chips, which were followed in May with Core i5 and Core i7 dual core chips which use less power and are a better fit for ultrabooks and other  thin and light laptops.
This week the company released the first Core i3 Ivy Bridge chips.
These dual core chips don’t offer quite as much performance as you’d expect from other members of the 3rd generation Core processors — but they’re also cheaper.
Some of the first ultrabooks featuring the new chips are already starting to hit the shelves, including a $719 Lenovo ideaPad U310 and $759 Lenovo IdeaPad U410.
Both of those laptops are equipped with Intel Core i3-3217U chips. This is a 17W dual core processor with a clock speed of 1.8 GHz, 350 MHz graphics, and support for up to 32GB of RAM.
Intel is also offering a Core i3-3110MÂ dual core chip with a TDP of 35W, a clock speed of 2.4 GHz, 650 MHz graphics, and support for up to 32 GB of RAM.
The second chip is likely aimed at mainstream laptops, while the lower power Core i3-3217U will probably be favored by ultrabook makers.
via CPU World, ZDNet, and Ultrabook News