Intel has introduced a new line of low voltage processors called the Y line, and this new line is limited to a maximum TDP of 13W.

With this generation Intel is introducing a new term dubbed Scenario Design Power (SDP) and this is how it explains it: “Scenario Design Power (SDP) is an additional thermal reference point meant to represent mainstream touch-first usages. It balances performance and mobility across PC and tablet workloads to extend capabilities into thin, thermally-constrained designs. “

In other words SDP should be some average consumption while TDP will remain the highest number. The leader of this market is the Core i7 3689Y, a dual-core with four treads based on the 22nm Ivy Bridge core. It is clocked at 1.5GHz and with turbo it gets to a whopping 2.5Ghz. It has a TDP of 13W, SDP of 7W and a price of $362.

The runner up is the Core i5 3439Y. It runs at 1.5GHz and turbo stops at 2.3GHz. It has two cores and four threads, HD 4000 graphics clocked at 350MHz and a top graphics frequency of 850MHz. It has the same 13W TDP and 7W SDP and it sells for $250.

Both of these processors should be seen in hybrid notebooks, slates, convertibles or clamshell designs and with such a low TDP they have a chance of taking some of designs from Atom based mobile parts, while delivering Core i5 and Core i7 performance levels.

The Haswell replacement that can sink TDP levels to 11.5 W but increase the SDP by half a watt to 7.5W is coming in Q4 2013, probably in time for Christmas shopping. We can expect some nice detachable notebooks, slates, convertibles or clamshell designs based on Y-series Haswell chips. It’s too early for clocks, we still don’t know much more about them, but it’s a dual-core with four threads and graphics goes up to GT2.