Intel to invest €50m in R&D jobs at Shannon

US COMPUTER chip giant Intel said yesterday it was creating 134 RD jobs developing “the most advanced silicon technology on the planet”. The €50 million investment in the development of Intel’s nanotechnology capability will bring to 300 the number employed at the company’s Irish design centre in the Shannon Free Zone over the next four years.

Intel Shannon’s general manager Jonathan Walsh said yesterday the development of the “32 nanometre” design at Shannon “is literally the most advanced silicon technology on the planet. No one else on the planet is dealing with more advanced technology.”

A nanometre is a billionth of a metre. “That gives us three thousand electrical devices on the width of a human hair, Mr Walsh said.

The project announced yesterday will involve the development of a new chip with a significantly improved design for embedded applications.

Mr Walsh forecast that, by 2015, there will be 15 billion devices connected to the internet across the world and the 32 nanometre design being developed “is key to Intel supporting the unprecedented growth in the market for embedded processors”.

Mr Walsh said that “at our best internationally, [Ireland] can compete for the very best with the very best, and we can win”.

However, he warned that the State was not producing enough graduate and postgraduate in computer science and electronic engineering.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan said the announcement “gives very real meaning to our ambition to develop Ireland’s smart economy, and is a wonderful testament to the highly talented skills base at Intel Shannon”. She described the move as “a very strategic investment”.

Intel Ireland general manager Jim O’Hara said: “My dream would be that both Intel in Leixlip in terms of advanced manufacturing and the Design Centre in Shannon here would compete on a world stage relevant to the core things that Intel will be doing over the next 20, 30, 40 years – and that vision is already becoming a reality.”