INTEL Corp has set up a software development unit in Shanghai in a move aimed at accelerating growth in China's already booming personal computer industry.
Intel president and chief executive officer Andrew Grove, who is in China for a first-hand look at the mainland's burgeoning computer industry, last week formally opened a branch office of the Intel Architecture Laboratory to spearhead the firm's localisation programme for Chinese-language software products.
By increasing the availability of local language applications software and tools, the company hoped to add even further impetus to the spiralling demand for its core microprocessor business in China, Mr Grove said.
The Shanghai-based company, called Intel Architecture Development Ltd - which has an initial staff of about 20 engineers - is Intel's second major China initiative this year.
In March, the company entered a pact with the mainland's largest electronics firm, China Electronics Corp (CEC), to establish assembly and test facilities in China for the firm's 386-class microprocessors family.
China's relatively small base of personal computers, which saw a meagre 450,000 PCs sold last year, is expected to grow rapidly into the world's largest market in a few years. Sales figures for the China market vary by a wide margin between research companies, although estimates of unit sales of PCs this year have been put as high as 1.3 million.
Intel's architecture is the clearly dominant computing platform and, with personal computers being a primary focus of various nationwide modernisation programmes, its mainland prospects look bright.
