Revenue of Intel’s data center unit was up 6% year over year in the third quarter, totaling US$2.7bn. The unit’s revenue was down 5% sequentially, however.

This was the only unit that reported year-over-year revenue growth. The company’s PC Client Group’s revenue was $8.6bn – down 8% year over year – and the bucket Intel calls its “other architecture” groups generated $1.2bn, or 14% down from Q3 2010.

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini said the results reflected a “tough economic environment”, but said the company had high hopes for mobile products based in its chips.

“The world of computing is in the midst of a period of breakthrough innovation and creativity,” Otellini said. “As we look to the fourth quarter, we're pleased with the continued progress in Ultrabooks and phones and excited about the range of Intel-based tablets coming to market.”

Data center platform volume was up 1% from this year’s second quarter and up 4% year over year. Average platform selling prices were down 7% sequentially and up 1% year over year, Intel said.

Intel’s total Q3 revenue was $13.5bn with net income of $3bn (EPS of $0.58). Total revenue was down 5% year over year and net income was down 14%.

The company said there had been a reduction of microprocessor inventory levels across the PC supply chain worldwide compared with the year’s second quarter.