Posted on Monday, April 02 2012 @ 13:18 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
PC World
received word that Qualcomm is working on a quad-core Snapdragon S4 for thin and light Windows 8 laptops. Qualcomm says these systems will be lighter than Intel's ultrabooks.
The lines between high-end smartphones, where Qualcomm's chips are normally found, and laptops has started to blur, Chandhok said. The S4 chips will enable smaller laptops with high-resolution screens, longer battery life and always-on connectivity, he said.
The chips are based on a core from U.K. chip design company ARM, and include an integrated modem and a graphics core capable of handling 3D graphics.
Just as Intel hopes to make microprocessors for smartphones, Qualcomm is trying to expand out of the smartphone market and into PCs. It has already shipped some prototype Windows 8 PCs with Snapdragon chips to developers. But Intel is moving against the ARM-based vendors by pouring millions of dollars into developing ultrabooks.
