Taiwan May Turn to ARM as Intel Fails to Fulfill WiMAX Pledge

Taipei, Aug. 4, 2010 (CENS)--The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is considering cooperating with ARM Ltd. to retaliate Intel for failing to fulfill its pledge to support Taiwan's WiMAX projects.

Cambridge-headquartered ARM is an archrival of Intel in the microprocessor market. The MOEA plans to cooperate with the company to help Taiwan's chip designers develop microprocessors based on ARM's intellectual properties.

The Taiwan government and the island's WiMAX industry are upset at Intel's sudden move to close its WiMAX Program Office in Taiwan and relocations of WiMAX resources to other affiliates, despite having heavily invested in the technology to support Intel, whose reversal is a telltale sign of withdrawing from WiMAX.

The ministry is closely watching whether Intel will break its promise to invest US$500 million in Taiwan's WiMAX projects and set up system-integration ventures with Taiwan's manufacturers.

ARM specializes in low-power, less-expensive central processing units for netbooks and smartphones whereas Intel stresses processors heavy on computing power.