AMD confirmed rumors today by unveiling a triple-core processor that is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2008. The chip is essentially a scaled down version of the quad-core processor.

It may sound silly to create a product that is crippled by design, AMD does have a point.

If you own a dual core processor today, have a look at your process viewer of the course of the day. It will rarely max out.

18 Sep 2007

That's because most of today's software isn't optimized to run on multiple cores. And if it is optimized, it is designed for 2 cores are most.

Secondly, the average user doesn't need much processor muscle to begin with. Freecell isn't exactly the most CPU intensive application around, and neither is Internet Explorer or Word.

Quad core systems therefore might be useful for the extreme gaming enthusiast. A triple-core design however will appeal to mainstream consumers, where the low end of the market will be perfectly happy with a dual-core.

AMD furthermore is likely to have a trump card up its sleeve. Given that a chip consumes up to 120 Watts, eliminating the fourth core increases the power available to each core by 33 per cent, allowing them to run at high clock frequencies.

That is good news for users who are looking to run regular compute intensive applications that can't be spread out over multiple cores. In some cases, a triple-core CPU will perform better than a quad-core one, AMD confirmed.