Intel Ireland Spotlight:20 years of making a difference
Print   Email a friend

Celebrating 20 Years of Intel in Ireland

November 27, 2009 marks a special day for Intel as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of operations in Ireland.

Intel located its technology campus in Ireland in 1989 and the production of motherboards and systems began the following year. Since then,over €6.0 billion has been invested in the 360 acre former stud farm, turning it into the most technologically advanced industrial location in Europe. Intel Ireland now boasts high tech manufacturing facilities as well as key business groups such as Digital Health, Intel Labs, several support functions and our Embedded Communications site in Shannon.

Intel has been good for Ireland over the last 20 years and Ireland has certainly been good for Intel – We look forward to the next 20 years of success working as team on the Ireland site and across our community and country.

Intel Ireland Milestones

1989 Intel selected Ireland as its European manufacturing and technology headquarters and commenced construction of the original PC motherboards and systems Factory (ESSM) at Leixlip.
1990 Assembly of PCs began in February in temporary premises in Palmerstown,west Dublin.
1991 ESSM completed and fully operational producing PC motherboards and systems.
1991 Construction of Fab 10 commenced - world's first high volume 200mm semiconductor wafer plant
1993Fab 10 Factory construction completed
1994 Fab 10 officially opened and production of the Pentium® processor ramped
1995 Extension to ESSM opened, dedicated to PC systems production
1995 Fab 14 expansion announced
1998 ESSM transitions successfully into manufacture of the Single Edge Contact cartridge (SECc)

Fab 14 officially opened

SECc winds down and employees redeployed to the higher value Fab Operations
2000 Craig Barrett announces Fab 24 project for Ireland site to come on stream in 2004. Construction started in July.
2002 In April, Fab 24 construction restart announced
2003 In March Ireland Fab Operations introduced 0.13 micron Flash memory technology – a $200 million investment
2003 In June 2003, Intel IT Innovation Centre headquarters unveiled at Leixlip campus
2004 In January, CRANN, the Centre for Research in Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices is announced
2004 In May Intel announced $2 billion investment in Fab24-2

In June, Fab 24 officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
2005 In April Ireland Fab Operations manufactures 1 billionth microprocessor
2006 First full loop on 65nm technology comes through in March
2006 In June, Fab 24-2 officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
2007 In January, the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre officially launched
2007 In September Intel Ireland hosted the European Research and Innovation Conference, an event which showcased a world class research and innovation eco system in Ireland and the EU.
2008 40th Anniversary of Intel Worldwide
2008 Intel awarded the prestigious honour of Overall Outstanding Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at The Chambers Ireland’s President’s Awards for CSR.
2009 20th Anniversary of Intel in Ireland
Related Resources
< Back to the Intel Ireland homepage