Intel Setting Its Sights On Growth '02 Sales Outlook Good Chipmaker is resuming construction on a plant, rolling out new products.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: JAMES DETAR

Intel Corp. is finishing the big cost-cutting program it began last year. Those measures saved $1 billion last year. Intel says that put it in position to make market gains in 2002.

With its expenses down, and the chip industry at the start of an expected upturn, Intel is focusing on growth now.

With sales prospects better this year, Intel is boosting its chipmaking capacity. It will also roll out a bunch of new chips for desktop and laptop personal computers.

For starters, Intel is resuming construction of a $2 billion plant in Leixlip, Ireland. It was put on hold last year to save money. That plant, Fab 24, will make the next generation of Intel's flagship Pentium chips. It's due to come online in 2004.

The plant will use the new 300-millimeter, dinner-plate-sized silicon wafers the industry's moving to. That'll boost the number of chips Intel gets from each wafer. It'll get 2.4 times as many per platter as it gets from today's 200 mm wafers.

Chief Executive Craig Barrett says Intel also plans to convert some older plants to 300 mm production.