3Com Corporation plans to open its first Asian product design center in Taiwan at the end of November, with an initial investment of around US$22 million and the capacity to expand to around 100 researchers.

"After a year of evaluation, 3Com decided that Taiwan is an ideal R&D location and therefore decided to increase the importance of Taiwan operations," said Huang Hui-ching, senior vice president of 3Com and the director of the new product design center. Upon completion, 3Com will be only the second global networking equipment company, behind Nortel Networks Ltd, to establish a center of this kind in Taiwan.

"3Com already has good relationships with many Taiwan companies, such as Accton Technology Corp. and Lite-on Technology Corp., and after the design center is opened we expect even closer relationships," said Huang.

The design center is likely to focus on Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching solutions, wireless applications, VoIP and SOHO lines.