Intel, the Santa Clara, California-based maker of central processing units, has decided to expand its collection of processors by unveiling some models for the Core i5 and Celeron series.
The new CPUs that Intel has released aren't really the ones that knowledgeable customers have been waiting for.
As such, it is unclear what chances the newcomers have of selling well before the Ivy Bridge series makes its official debut.
Then again, dual-core next-generation chips aren't going to appear until May and, even factoring in all other core counts, there will only be a few so-called flagships available at first.
That said, the new processors on Intel's price list are Celeron B815, B720, 867 and 797 (for notebooks) and the desktop Core i5-2550K, i5-2450P and i5-2380P.
Celeron 867 (dual-core, two threads) and 797 (single-core, one thread) are ULV chips (ultra-low voltage) with clock speeds of 1.3 GHz and 1.4 GHz, respectively.
In that order, their prices are of $134 and $107, which translate into 101.41 and 80.8 Euro.
Meanwhile, the Celeron B815 and B720 sell for $86 and $70, respectively (65/53 Euro).
The former is a dual-core (two threads) unit with 2MB L3 cache and 1.6 GHz frequency, while the latter is a single-core, 1.7 GHz CPU (one thread) with 1 MB L3 cache.
Moving on, the Core i5-2450P and i5-2380P are priced at $195/148 Euro and $177/134 Euro, while the Core i5-2550K, the strongest of all the newcomers, sells for $225 (170 Euro).
The i5-2450P and i5-2380P have four cores each, four threads and 6MB of L3 cache memory, plus a TDP of 95W. What sets them apart is, predictably enough, the frequency: 3.2 GHz vs. 3.1 GHz.
Finally, the Core i5-2550K has most things in common with its two siblings above, only the operational clock is of 3.4 GHz. In other words, it is a somewhat stronger alternative to the Core i5-2500K (3.3 GHz), albeit costlier too ($234/177 Euro).
