Intel is looking to introduce a range of Pentium processors based on the 32nm Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, according to a report by Chinese site Inpai. The budget-oriented family will apparently comprise four different chips, with the dual-core Pentium G850 leading the charge sporting a 2.9GHz clock speed, 3MB of L3 cache, and a 65W thermal envelope. The chip is said to be nearly identical to the Core i3 2100, only Intel dropped the clock speed on the former and disabled Hyper-Threading to produce the specifications mentioned before.
There's no mention of price but it would have to be lower than the $120 asking price of Intel's Core i3 2100, which is clocked at 3.1GHz. Also making an appearance is a 2.8GHz Pentium G840, a 2.6GHz G620, and a 2.2GHz G620T with a 35W TDP. For reference, Inpai ran some simulated G840 benchmarks and found that the chip's performance would lie somewhere in between that of the i3-2100 and the existing Clarkdale-based Pentium G6950.
As usual you should take the aforementioned information with a pinch of salt until Intel makes an official announcement, but if Inpai is right the new Sandy Bridge Pentiums could be an interesting option for budget-conscious consumers.