Despite of the global economic crisis, Intel Corp. plans to finish building of four production facilities that will make chips using 32nm process technology next year. The chipmaker strongly believes that advantages provided by the new fabrication process will allow it to be more competitive.

“The significant increase in our capacity going into next year is to continue to ramp the 32nm factories. We have got two factories sort of ramping now against a planned four. That remains on track. That technology will provide the significant new product portfolio and capacity expansion we think we need for the 2010 environment,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, during the quarterly conference call with financial analysts.

Next year Intel not only plans to release several 32nm central processing units for desktops or mobile computers, but also new Atom chips and Atom-based system-on-chip devices for various ultra-portable applications, including handsets. In addition, next year Intel plans to release its Larrabee-series of graphics processing units, which may also take advantage of 32nm in late 2010 or 2011.

Intel is the world’s largest maker of complex semiconductors. It is crucial for the company to utilize state-of-the-art fabs and advanced process technology in order to be able to increase the amount of transistors per chip every 18 months without substantial raise of production cost.

Intel’s 32nm production facilities will be located in the U.S.: in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon.

Tags: Intel, Semiconductor, Business, 32nm