Samsung said it is sampling the chips to major handset makers as it seeks to expand its customer base from Apple Inc to its handset rivals such as Nokia , HTC and Motorola.

The South Korean firm is the world's top manufacturer of mobile application processors (AP), enjoying booming sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad as well as its own Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets.

The Exynos 4 Quad, based on British chip designer ARM Holdings' Cortex A9 technology, enables more tasks in a shorter period of time, for example, a task such as streaming video can run on one core while the other cores update applications in the background, connecting to the web and scanning virus-check simultaneously.

Samsung plans to unveil its upgraded Galaxy S III smartphone next week in London, banking on a heavy marketing campaign heading into the summer Olympics in the city.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Eric Meijer)

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