You could say mobile chip makers are trying to kill one bird with two stones. In order to give smartphones enough computing power for the myriad new software applications and features consumers crave, companies making the semiconductors that run cell phones are doubling the number of processors on each chip. The technological leap will offer next-generation smartphones the performance to rival netbooks and possibly even laptop computers.
Chip makers such as Texas Instruments Inc., joint venture ST-Ericsson and others are already developing so-called multi-core chips, which contain more than one processing engine, or core, on a single piece of silicon.
