Qualcomm is looking to expand beyond the mobile-phone chip market it leads, and on Thursday demonstrated a product designed for server computers. The initial version of the purpose-built system-on-chip has 24 cores, though the final part will have more. It has been designed by Qualcomm for the computers that run corporate networks. The chip is in preproduction so potential customers and partners can test it, Qualcomm Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher said at an event in San Francisco.

Qualcomm is trying to provide an alternative to Intel processors for operators of giant data centers that provide computing over the Internet.

Qualcomm announced partnerships with chipmakers Xilinx and Mellanox Technologies as it develops a product for sale. Qualcomm estimates the new market may present a $15 billion opportunity by 2020.

Qualcomm joins a long list of companies targeting the same space. Companies such as Applied Micro Circuits Corp. and AMD are bringing servers that use ARM Holdings Plc technology-based chips to market in an attempt to loosen Intel’s stranglehold. They have argued that alternatives are needed to help Intel’s customers get better pricing and that ARM designs are more power efficient and cheaper.