Intel gives Taiwan cash for Wimax

INTEL PLANS TO set up shop in Taiwan, peddling Linux software to the masses and doing its bit to globally promote Taiwanese produced laptops and mobile Internet devices (MIDs).

Chief Exec Paul Otellini made the announcement today, telling hacks it was all part of Chipzilla’s efforts to help Taiwan hold on to its competitive edge in the market.

Taiwan is a market Intel has a vested interest in, with local big boys Acer and Asus bunging Intel Atom chips into laptops ranging from the cheap as chips $300 netbooks, to the mid-range $1,000 notebooks.

"The center's engineers will provide training and consulting... to accelerate the adoption of mobile technologies," noted Otellini who added that the firm’s efforts would reduce time to market for shipping Intel Atom processors as well as Linux Moblin-based systems.

Obviously not through with spreading the Intel love in Taiwan, Otellini also announced that Intel Capital would be sinking $11.5 million into Taiwanese Wimax carrier Vmax, the 30th Wimax firm to get funding from Intel’s investment arm.

Otellini expressed the hope that the spare cash would help Vmax set up Taiwan’s first fourth generation wireless network nationwide by the first half of 2009. µ