Intel's 12-inch fab in Dalian has been put into operaton for the manufacture of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) chips, according to a ChinaNews website report.

Intel has invested a total of US$5.5 billion to convert the Dalian fab for memory chip production, the report indicated.

Intel in 2007 broke ground for construction of the Dalian fab, the vendor's first 12-inch fab in Asia, which went operational in 2010 producing 65nm products. The fab was designed to originally focus on the supply of chipsets for PCs and notebooks.

In an October 2015 blog by Rob Crooke, senior VP and GM of Intel's non-volatile memory solutions group, Intel decided to utilize the Dalian fab to help expand its manufacturing capacity in non-volatile memory. "We expect initial production of the 3D NAND technology in Dalian in the second half of 2016," said Crooke. "We have a long-term plan for this facility and may invest up to US$5.5 billion over the coming years to transition this site to support leading-edge non-volatile memory production."