Whilst dual-core powered smartphones and tablets might be talk of the town at this years Mobile World Congress, today chipset manufacturer Qualcomm has raised the stakes, announcing its new quad-core Snapdragon processor which will become available early next year.

Qualcomm will debut three new chips; its single-core MSM8930, the dual-core MSM8960, and the quad-core APQ8064, all of which will form part of the company’s new processor architecture which goes under the codename “Krait”.

The new Snapdragon processors will offer 2.5GHz speeds per core, delivering 150% higher performance, using 65%lesspower that the ARM-based processors currently on the market.

The quad-core APQ8064 (and all other Krait chipsets) will integrate WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radio, supporting NFC as well as stereoscopic 3D – there will even be in integrated LTE modem.

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Sample of the dual-core MSM8960 chip will be available in Q2 2011, hitting the market later in the year to stop the flow of Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset, but sample of both the single-core MSM8930 and quad-core APQ8064 processors will become available in early 2012.

Story byMatt Brian

Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him on Twitter, subscribe to his updates on Facebook and catch up with him(show all)Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him onTwitter, subscribe to his updates onFacebookand catch up with him onGoogle+.

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