AMD u-turn on triple core APU

Here at Xtreme PC News back in late July we broke the news to you that AMD had axed its triple core A6-3500 model after AMD officials were recorded saying it had never been planned for release, read about that here, but now AMD is apparently bringing back this processor. It would appear the specifications remain totally unchanged, the A6-3500 slots in between the A6-3600 and the A4-3400 APUs, as the A6-3500 is just an A6-3600 minus one core. Just a quick recap for those who are unaware of the specifications:

• 3 Cores @ 2.1GHz (2.4GHz turbo)
• 3MB Cache
• HD 6530D (320 Radeon Cores) Core 443MHz
• 65W TDP
• 1866MHz DDR3 support

AMD will bring this processor in this month with the rest of the Llano line up including the unreleased dual cores. Pricing for the A6-3500 will fall in between the dual and quad core line ups which will probably be in the region of £70/$110 give or take 10%. The news reopens the traditional criticism of AMD which is that they cannot manufacture quad core processors without breaking some of the cores, but the triple core does sit in a nice market position where it gives greater functionality than equally (or sometimes higher) priced Intel Dual core processors.