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Chip bods ride the Snapdragon, yell: Mobes are consoles, lightbulbs are mobes

Pumping Qualcomm's 810 crazytech

CES 2015 Qualcomm is talking up its mobile and embedded chips as the 2015 CES conference gets into full swing.

The company said that its Snapdragon 810 would be making a splash in the market as vendors sought to integrate the processor into their smartphones and tablets. The company cited LG - who used the chip in its G Flex 2 handset - among the vendors who will be showcasing the new mobile processor in the coming days.

Qualcomm said that the chip, unveiled last year, would bring performance improvements including enhanced graphic capabilities. To help push the platform in the consumer market, the company said that it had ported the Unreal graphics engine to the Snapdragon platform, offering high-quality gaming graphics for handsets and tablets.

Qualcomm is also looking to bolster its wireless broadband offerings, talking up a new line of LTE chips that will allow carriers to use both their licensed spectrum space and also tap into free unlicensed spectrum to improve performance when needed.

"We believe this is a more efficient use of unlicensed spectrum," said Qualcomm president Derek Aberle.

"We see a big opportunity for supplemental channels in the unlicensed band."

Lest you think Qualcomm is all about high-revenue markets like mobile devices and wireless networking, the company also went out of its way to show that it's not above a bit of dabbling in the silly markets as well.

The firm closed out its presentation with something decidedly less sexy than a multi-core mobile processor: a Wi-Fi enabled lightbulb.

Designed as part of Qualcomm's LifX platform, the chipset allows any bulb to become a bit smart lighting, offering Wi-Fi connectivity and the ability to be controlled with a PC, mobile device or other embedded controller.

The company hopes that the bulbs will be the start of a larger push into the lucrative "internet of things" space, a natural progression for a firm focused on mobile, networking and embedded devices. ®

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