Intel has released a rather interesting Sandy Bridge processor that might very well have the lowest TDP of any non-Atom desktop processor to date.

The Pentium 350 is a dual-core 32nm processor based on the Sandy Bridge architecture and it’s clocked at just 1.2GHz, making for a very energy efficient LGA 1155 package with a 15W TDP. The polar bear friendly chips lacks onboard graphics, but it supports hyperthreading and comes with a rather generous 3MB of L3 cache.

To put things in perspective, the most power efficient Sandy Bridge parts in the desktop segment have a 35W TDP, and 15W is pretty impressive even by mobile standards. For example, the 1.2GHz Pentium U5400 has an 18W TDP. The new Pentium 350 appears to be a derivative of low-voltage Xeon chips, since it supports ECC memory and does not have integrated graphics.

It sounds like an excellent choice for tiny home servers, maybe even HTPC builds and other small form factor machines with an emphasis on low power consumption and noiseless operation. However, Intel has a tendency to slap pretty high price tags on its ultra low voltage parts, so don’t expect it to come cheap.

You check out the full spec at Intel.