Intel's first Asia unit in China begins production

BEIJING: US computer chip giant Intel Corporation has inaugurated its first chip plant in Asia in northeast China's Liaoning Province today. The USD 2.5-bn plant is located in the high-tech Jinzhou New District north of the port city of Dalian.

It covers an area of 163,000 square meters, roughly the same area as 23 soccer fields. Completion of the Dalian factory raised Intel's investment in China to $4.7 bn.

With more than 1,700 employees, 88 per cent of whom are locals, it will initially produce chipsets for laptops, high- performance desktop PCs and powerful servers, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. It will use 65-nanometer technology, an advanced method of computer chip-making that measures its work in 65 bnths of a meter.

The technology is more advanced than the 90-nanometer technology Intel had pledged when it initially announced the project. General Manager of the plant, Kirby Jefferson, the current trade frictions between the US and China would not affect operations of his plant.