8 Asian Firms Will Use Intel’s Manitoba Chip

Intel Corp., the world’s largest semiconductor maker, said eight Asian mobile-phone makers have agreed to develop handsets using its Manitoba chip, which has computing, memory and signal functions on one device.

Four of the eight are based in China, Intel officials said at a news briefing in Beijing. The other four are in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

Handsets incorporating the chip will help China’s mobile operators roll out new services, Intel officials forecast. The country has more than 200 million mobile-phone users, making it the world’s largest market.

“They’re saying a year from now you can be receiving pictures instead of just a few lines of text messages,” said Ian Yang, general manager of Intel China Ltd. “If that’s going to happen, you’re going to need the processing part of this device.”