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.

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