SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

Rockwell International’s Newport Beach-based Semiconductor Products Division has completed a product design center near Nice, France--its first such facility in Europe.

The facility is scheduled to open next month in the Sophia Antipolis Science Park. Computers at the French facility will be linked directly with Rockwell’s research and development center in Newport Beach.

Gilbert F. Amelio, president of telecommunications and semiconductor products businesses for Rockwell, said the facility “will enable us to quickly meet the specific needs of our European customers for advanced data and telecommunications products.”

The facility is an important part of Rockwell’s strategy to boost sales in Europe, which accounted for 12% of the division’s total in 1987, said company spokesman Ralph Bond. “Our goal is to have European sales represent 20% of revenues by 1990,” he said.

Rockwell’s Newport Beach operation employs about 1,500 people.