Intel has released its  fastest dual-core Core i3 laptop processor to PC makers and apparently Dell and Hewlett-Packard have bought shedloads.

The Core i3-370m will run at 2.4GHz and include 3MB of cache.  Already HP have announced that its Pavilion dv6t is selling with the new chip inside.

Dell has started to flog the processor in the Studio 15 laptop in Mexico and some parts of the Asian-Pacific region. So far, however, it has not been seen as a standalone item and can only be bought inside a laptop.

The new processor is the fastest in the Core i3 group of entry-level chips and Intel told us about it in January. Naturally, the company will continue to flog the 2.13Ghz Core i3-330m and 2.26Ghz Core i3-350m processors but if you want anything better you will have to go to the faster Core i5 and Core i7 chips.

The new chips are faster and have better offer quicker application and graphics performance compared to earlier Core 2 models because of technological improvements. The graphics processor and CPU are merged into a single package, which helps improve graphics performance while consuming less power. The beast can run two threads per core which also speeds things up a bit.

Intel has not made any information about a standalone chip cost available yet.