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Qualcomm is introducing a new line of quad-core smartphone processors. But the Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q aren’t high-priced chips aimed at top-of-the-line devices. Instead these chips are aimed at entry-level smartphones.

In other words, the quad-core club ain’t as exclusive as it used to be. Of course, chips with four processing cores aren’t always faster than single or dual-core processors. They just have more cores, which should help with multitasking and performance in tasks that can take advantage of the parallel processing features offered by multi-core chips.

Qualcomm’s new chips feature support for faster LPDDR2 memory than the company’s dual-core variants, and include WiFi, Bluetooth, and FM radio capabilities.

The chip maker is also introducing the S4 Plus MSM8930 chip with support for high speed mobile broadband networks in China.

Qualcomm will send out samples of the new chips to manufacturers later this year, and expects to ship in volume early in 2013. Meanwhile, the company also plans to release reference designs that will help phone makers build “high volume” inexpensive devices that user the new processors.

via Engadget