Intel Core i3-3120M CPU is in the works

At present, Intel Core i3 mobile family consists of two Ivy Bridge SKUs, and a large number of older, and very likely cheaper, "Sandy Bridge" processors. Ivy Bridge-based CPUs are Core i3-3110M for mainstream notebooks, and ultra low voltage Core i3-3217U for thin-and-light laptops. In the fourth quarter of this year the i3-3110M will get a slightly faster successor, i3-3120M, also built on Ivy Bridge microarchitecture.

Similar to other i3 microprocessors, Core i3-3120M has 2 CPU cores with shared 3 MB L3 cache, and integrates DDR3 memory controller. The chip supports Hyper-Threading, which allows it to execute 4 threads at once. Core i3-3120M comes with 2.5 GHz, or 100 MHz faster clock speed, than the i3-3110M. The processor includes Intel HD 4000 graphics, and fits into 35 Watt TDP. We don't have full details of the i3-3120M, but we expect that remaining features will be identical or close to the 3110M chip. The i3-3120M will be different from currently produced i3-3120ME. The latter part is an embedded 2.4 GHz processor, that supports ECC memory.

According to Intel roadmaps, Core i3-3120M will be launched in the 4th quarter 2012.