Taiwanese Powerchip announced on January 25 that it plans to significantly strengthen its R&D operations starting in 2006. The company's plans include increasing its R&D budget to approximately NT$3.4 billion, up 100% over 2005, and building an R&D center in the city of Xinzhu. Construction on this center is expected to begin in mid-2006, and will initially employ about 300 people, which in the future might be expanded to 1,500-2,000 people. It will focus on high-density NAND flash, specifically on offerings with capacity of more than 8GB.