Though conspicuous by its absence on AMD's processor page but announced some six months' ago, the company is now shipping, in volume, triple-core processors based on its K10 architecture.

Indeed, MESH Computers is already listing at least two triple-core-equipped SKUs, comprising of the Phenom 8400 and Phenom 8600 parts, running at 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz, respectively.

Remember, though, that 'losing' a core from a monolithic quad-core architecture - whether by financial design or yield problems - also loses 512KiB of L2 cache, bringing the processor's total L2 to 1.5MiB. L3 cache, which is shared, remains the same, at 2MiB

Processor-in-a-box models will be available soon, we're told, although that's akin to saying how long is a piece of string, right?

Codenamed Toliman, triple-core models will be a mainstay of AMD's desktop processors business, with 45nm models planned for release later this year. We just hope that the company can roll out B3 stepping (erratum 298-free) models ASAP.

Is a triple-core Phenom faster than a dual-core (45nm) Core 2 Duo clocked in at the same speed? Will it be cheaper to the end-user? We'll find out in due course.