NEC plans to launch a quad-core processor based on ARM's Cortex
A9 design. The company is expected to showcase the new CPU during the
Mobile World Congress, on ARM's booth.
NEC made the first multi-core ARM processor as early as 2005 and it
consisted of four ARM11 processor in 130nm. Going quad seems to be the
next milestone for ARM processors. Marvell announced that it developed
a quad-core ARM chip back at CES, but it did not reveal any details on
its design.
Several other chipmakers already announced dual-core designs and
vendors hope to incorporate them into smartphones, tablets and
smartbooks later this year. However, we're really not sure what kind of
products quad-core ARMs could end up in. They sound like overkill in
most environments ARM usually thrives in.
More
here.