Qualcomm Prepping Quadcore Chip For Windows 8 Laptops

Qualcomm is preparing a quad-core version of its Snapdragon S4 chip to be used in Windows 8 laptops, according to senior vice president Rob Chandhok.

Chandhok made the admission to PC World as the company seeks to expand beyond supplying chips to the mobile market.

Thinner and lighter

Qualcomm hopes the chips 4G and multimedia capabilities will differentiate it in a market which is also contested by Intel and British chip designer ARM. Chandhok also pointed to the fact that S4 chips are manufactured with a 28 nanometre process, which improves power efficiency and performance compared to earlier Snapdragon chips.

The chips will allow for thinner and lighter laptops than the Intel-backed ultrabooks or Apple MacBook Air but will still be capable of having high-resolution screens, longer battery life and always-on connectivity.

“We think much lighter than what Intel calls an ultrabook,” said Chandhok, who also believes the line between smartphones and laptops is blurring. He also said that Qualcomm was investigating the possibility of 64-bit support on Qualcomm, but was unable to say when such a chip would be released.

Chandhok also claimed that the chips, which can support 3D graphics, would improve gaming performance in Windows 8 devices by executing programmes in parallel across multiple cores.

Qualcomm demonstrated the S4 chipset working with Windows 8 at CES in January, while at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona in February it announced it was going to offer a pro version to power even more powerful mobile computing devices.

Recent reports suggested Windows 8, which is designed to work equally well on both PCs and tablets, will be released in October. It was indicated that there would be 40 Intel machines at launch, with just five ARM devices, although Microsoft sees the latter as vital to its long term strategy.

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