Qualcomm Inc. is joining a race to deliver Internet access to people in emerging countries, with a plan that takes the chip maker beyond cellphones into desktop hardware.

The San Diego company, which is holding a meeting with analysts Thursday in New York, has developed a design for a home computing device that uses its cellphone chips rather than the components found in most personal computers. The goal is to bring Web access to places that have cellular data networks, but wired connections are unavailable or unaffordable.