Even as Cortex-A12 dual-core SoCs offer better energy efficiency and performance, quad-core Cortex-A7 ones look better on specs-sheets, and are here to live on. With the likes of MediaTek and Qualcomm making a killing out of selling them to entry-level smartphone and tablet makers, Broadcom jumped in for its slice, by unveiling the BCM23550.

　　Designed for devices targeted at value-conscious markets, BCM23550 integrates a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU clocked at 1.20 GHz, VideoCore IV graphics capable of playing back 1080p video, an image signal processor capable of handling cameras with up to 12 megapixels resolution; and a soft-modem capable of HSPA+ (21.1 Mbps down / 5.76 Mbps up data), NFC, 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, GPS/Glonass, Bluetooth 4.0, and support for ARM TrustZone.

　　The first of these chips should begin sampling in Q3, that's before October.