Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has confirmed that it will be offering a processor that features three cores. Based on its Barcelona quad-core platform, the new processors will probably be marketed as Phenom X3, entering the market between the current Phenom X2 (dual core) and Phenom X4 (quad-core). Although there is no official date set yet, AMD said that it won’t ship the 3-core processors until the first quarter of 2003. These new processors are actually the manufacturing “rejects’ of the quad-core Phenom X4 line, with one core not working. This is a common practice in the industry minimizing resource waste and to maximizing yield in CPU production.