Intel creates software R&D unit in Argentina

NEWS BROKE before the weekend that chip firm Intel will create a software R&D unit in Cordoba, Argentina, dealing with "web 2.0" and virtualization, and which will be added to Chipzilla's existing coding centre down under.

The company which gave the world+dog the "world's most reliable" server CPU, the Itanium, insists in developing software. As reported on local site Canal-AR and also Business News Americas, the unit will be part of the firm's "Software Pathfinding and Innovation" or SPI labs, and will take three years to be built, at a cost of 9.5 million greenbacks or &#8364 7.3M or 4.85M pounds sterling, depending on which currency you fancy.

Chipzilla told the local media that the software R&D centre in the province of Cordoba -positioned at the geographical centre of Argentina- has shown "good performance" and that the existing lab is currently employing 40 people. Luis Blando, whose last name can be appropriately translated from Spanish to English as "Soft" as in, well, software, said this new software unit will "strengthen the company's projects" in Argentina. In addition, plans are underway to begin construction of Intel's own new building near the National Technology University (UTN) campus.

This new lab will be Intel's second "SPI" unit, and the first of its kind outside the U.S. The SPI is headed by Mark Abel, according to local newspaper Infobae. Mr. Soft Blando told Canal-AR that the unit is "already working" and has six people employed, with an initial investment of $1.5M for "hiring specialized personnel" and "acquiring equipment". Apparently, a lot of the developments might end up in La Intella's Wintel-based "Connected Home" efforts, although "Web 2.0", security and virtualization were also mentioned among the duties of the SPI unit. The "Context Aware Computing" research by the SPI unit will surely fit Intel's Digital Home, for instance to develop better "predictive" engines that in turn will make make user interfaces more "friendly" and predictable to the regular user- and of course less predictable if you're not the regular user. Just wait until they factor user gender detection and PMS cycles, or men's beer drunkenness factor into user interfaces.

The firm's software R&D centre enjoys tax breaks by the Provincial government and was launched May 2006. Intel's Blando told BNamericas that Intel will take advantage of the "software promotion law" in the province and "apply for entitlement to those benefits". Intel said it plans the investment to total $3.9M by the end of 2007.

We originally reported about Chipzilla's R&D centre over here.µ

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