Were you wondering when the low-end Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks would start to appear? Right about now is the answer.

Intel have launched the Core i3-3217U. There’s no Turbo Boost but it comes with a handy 1.8Ghz base clockrate.

The Core i3-3217U also comes with all the Intel Quick Sync Video and HD4000 goodness you’d expect from an Ultrabook and together it forms a huge improvement over the 2nd Gen Core i3 option which was only clocking at 1.3 or 1.4Ghz. In fact, in long-term high-power scenarios, there may not be any difference between the Core i3 and Core i5. Take the Samsung Series 9 under battery power for example. The Core i5 CPU is locked at 1.8Ghz max in this mode – exactly what the Core i3 would deliver.

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In a typical ‘premium first’ move, Intel have announced 4 new 3rd generation Core processors aimed at Ultrabooks and other highly mobile PCs.

It’s easy to see which devices are going to be best for gaming and video work – the i5-3317U runs a slightly lower max GPU clock. All have a 17W nominal TDP although we already know that this TDP can be programmed  up or down for design purposes.

The official list matches the one we published last week…

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If you thought that tracking processors, clockrates and TDP figures was hard last year, just wait until later this year when ‘programmable TDP’ CPUs hit Ultrabooks. It looks like we’ll have to make a change to our product database to accommodate this new idea in multi-use CPUs.

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