Intel announced two years ago its intention to invest $2.5 billion to build a 300-mm fab in the northern Chinese city of Dalian. The fab, to be the No. 1 chipmaker's first in China, was initially slated to use 90-nm technology to make chipsets.

''We originally announced it at 90-nm, but said there was a chance that we'd go to 65-nm. We have the U.S. government license, so that when we start we'll be on 65-nm,'' according to a spokesman at Intel.

Intel may have missed the market window for 90-nm, considered an older technology by the company's standards. Intel itself is ramping up 45-nm devices, with 32-nm products due by year's end.

Intel has denied rumblings within the semiconductor equipment community that it has pushed out plans for a 300-mm fab in China, saying that the company remains on schedule to have the facility in production next year.