The S4 chips will go into laptops that are thinner and lighter than Apple's MacBook Air or today's ultrabooks, according to Rob Chandhok, senior vice president at Qualcomm. Ultrabooks are being promoted by Intel as a new category of thin and light laptops.

"We think much lighter than what Intel calls an ultrabook," Chandhok said.

The lines between high-end smartphones, where Qualcomm's chips are normally found, and laptops has started to blur, Chandhok said. The S4 chips will enable smaller laptops with high-resolution screens, longer battery life and always-on connectivity, he said.

The chips are based on a core from U.K. chip design company ARM, and include an integrated modem and a graphics core capable of handling 3D graphics.

Just as Intel hopes to make microprocessors for smartphones, Qualcomm is trying to expand out of the smartphone market and into PCs. It has already shipped some prototype Windows 8 PCs with Snapdragon chips to developers. But Intel is moving against the ARM-based vendors by pouring millions of dollars into developing ultrabooks.