Qualcomm: Quad-Core Mobile CPUs in 2012, Up to 2.5GHz in Speed

Nvidia will bring to the market their first quad-core application processor for mobile devices as soon as this year (the already announced Kal-El, or Tegra 3 chip), yet it seems that rival companies will make a similar move soon as well.

Qualcomm has already unveiled plans to step into the area, and has recently confirmed again that it will be launching such chips foe mobile phones early next year.

At the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, we might see the first quad-core smartphone packing a mobile processor from Qualcomm, the company stated.

Moreover, the chip maker stated that the quad-core CPUs might be clocked in at up to 2.5GHz per core, almost twice than what the current dual-core chips can offer.

Qualcomm believes that, when it comes to the mobile market, the future will bring higher clock speeds, improved graphics capabilities, better connectivity, and the like, and has designed the chip with these capabilities inside.

Qualcomm's silicone will be an S4 class chipset that will include Adreno Graphics, support for 3D content, 1080p HD recording and playback capabilities, and 3G and LTE connectivity right from the start.

These processors have been designed to offer support for the entertainment capabilities of next-generation mobile devices, while also being optimized to be power efficient.

“It’s not about how many cores or how many gigabytes, it’s how well you can optimize the system,” Paul Jacobs, CEO, reportedly stated.

The new processors will arrive at mobile phone makers before the end of the ongoing year, and should make it inside smartphones and other mobile devices during 2012, the company stated.

What has not been specified for the time being was what mobile operating systems these application processors will offer support for.

Undoubtedly, Android devices that pack them will be released (Nvidia's quad-core CPU was already confirmed to be included inside them), but it remains to be seen whether Windows Phone, BlackBerry or even bada phones will be launched with such powerful chips inside.