Earlier this week, Intel Corporation held a formal opening ceremony of its new research, development and testing center in Costa Rica. As reported by tech journalist Marvin Barquero of daily newspaper La Nacion, this is a “mega-laboratory” that will test and validate new products designed by this major chip manufacturer.

The opening of this research and development (R&D) center in Costa Rica follows the economically painful closure of Intel’s manufacturing plant formerly located in Belen, province of Heredia. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star:

Two big companies, Bank of America and Intel, shut down a major chunk of their operations in the Central Valley and about 2,000 workers received the dreaded pink slips.

 

Welcome to the new business paradigm show, brought to you by globalization and free trade. Today’s episode is “Free Markets: Easy Come, Easy Go.” Global corporate giants such as Bank of America and Intel call the shots these days, and there is little governments can do (at least under the purported auspices of free trade) to stop them from doing so.

Intel’s downsizing had been in the works for about a year; it was the company’s response to the competitive strain that mobile computing has brought upon them. It is uncertain whether Intel can catch up to mobile rivals, but they decided to give manufacturing a try in Asia, where it is far cheaper, instead of Costa Rica.

The formal ceremony was attended by President Luis Guillermo Solis, who has spent considerable time and effort courting potential foreign investors and trying to convince them to set up shop in Costa Rica. Intel’s new R&D center will employ 250 highly skilled employees, which will bring the number of remaining workers in our country to 1,600. Also in attendance was Alexander Mora, Minister of Foreign Trade.

In essence, the pre and post-silicon validation processes that may be conducted at Intel Costa Rica consist of ensuring that the hundreds of thousands of logic processes performed by chip function properly. In some environments, this is achieved through observation and simulation.