Intel has some good news for its shareholders, as usual. It just announced another record, with skyrocketing revenue and profit.

Talking about numbers, Intel's revenue for Q3 2011 is 14.3 billion, up 3.2 billion or 29 percent year-over-year, while the profit was $5.1 billion, up 895 million or 22 percent year-over-year.

Gross margin is 64.4 percent, down 1.7 percentage point year-over-year while the net income hit a record $3.7 billion, up $705 million or 24 percent year-over-year. Earnings per share were 69 cents per share, up 17 cent or 33 percent year-over-year. These are all non-GAAP figures.

GAAP results are slightly lower, revenue $14.2 billion, up $3.1 billion or 28 percent year-over-year. Gross margin is 63.4 percent, down 2.6 percent year-over-year, operating income is $4.8 billion, up $649 million, 16 percent year-over-year. Net income is a record $3.5 billion, up $513 or 17 percent since last year, while EPS a record 65 cent, up 14 cent or 25 percent year-over-year.

Business unit trends created a lot of this money as PC client group generated $9.4 billion and was up 22 percent year-over-year. Data center group revenue was $2.5 billion, up 15 percent, other Intel architecture group revenue is up 68 percent.

Intel Atom microprocessors and chipset revenue was $289 million, down 32 percent year-over-year. People definitely are buying fewer Atoms then they used to. McAfee Inc. and Intel Mobile Communications contributed revenue of $1.1 billion. The platform average selling price (ASP) was up year-over-year and flat sequentially.

Gross margin was 63.4 percent, 0.6 percent below the midpoint of the company's expectation. R&D plus MG&A spending was $4.2 billion, slightly below the company's expectations. Net gain of $107 million from equity investments and interest and other, consistent with Intel’s expectations of approximately $100 million. The effective tax rate was 29 percent, above the company's expectation of approximately 28 percent. The company used $4.0 billion to repurchase $186 million shares of common stock.

Now Intel hopes for a good fourth quarter and these are some of its forecasts. It expects GAAP revenue of $14.7 billion plus or minus $500 million. Gross margin should get to around 65 percent, R&D plus MG&A spending are expected at approximately $4.3 billion

Apart from a flop in the Atom business unit, the other parts of the company did really well. Despite the lack of real tablet chips, Intel is not feeling much of a pressure and next year thing is going to get better for them as they have many chips that can run Windows 8 on tablets or any other device. Intel still did great compared to most other chip companies who seem to be struggling to pay their bills and hope for better times and more demand. Sadly, the current economic climate promises neither.