Freescale has launched a system on a chip that includes a full base station, which will allow vendors to build smaller, greener and cheaper units while maintaining performance for 3G and 4G networks, the company said on Monday at Mobile World Congress.

A new research study estimates that 163 million "smartbooks" will ship worldwide in 2015 - a significant rate of growth given that the very first models only appeared in 2008.

Freescale on Monday is expected to announce a new processor for netbooks that may challenge chip maker Intel on price in the low-cost computing space.