NEC Unveils Quad-Core Cortex-A9

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ARM-style processors are the de facto standard for mobile phones and other small computer-packing gadgets. NEC and Marvell have booth been working on a quad-core processor, but NEC’s is allegedly further along. NEC has been a longtime supporter of the ARM architecture.

Back in 2005, NEC showed off what they then called was the first ARM quad-core processor, but it was simply four ARM11 processors on the same die. Now, NEC has developed a Cortex-A9 design that allegedly has four different cores, not just four processors attached together.

At CES this year, Marvell claimed to have developed the “world’s first” quadruple core ARM processor, but did not show the technology or expand on with details. NEC is planning to show off their quad-core off at the Mobile World Congress, next week in Spain, so it’s expected that they will take the proper crown of ‘first quadcore’ ARM processor. Because of the licensing agreement with ARM for the rights to their architecture – the technology, developed by NEC, will be shown off in the ARM booth.

No word on if Apple has anything to say about this. They were pretty quiet about their “Apple A4″ processor that powers the iPad, which we know little about other than that it has a clockspeed of 1GHz. Industry speculation has the processor based on ARM architecture and some have speculated that the processor has dual- or quad-cores inside of it.

What does this mean for you, the consumer? ARM processors are pretty much the standard in everything smaller than a netbook, from UMPCs to Smartphones to MP3 players. As manufacturers push the envelope with these little processors, that means more power for your small gadgets.