Hanover, Germany - Intel set out in Hanover Tuesday plans to invest massively in low-power semiconductors as well as a joint venture between the world's biggest chipmaker and a Taiwan company.

Christian Morales, who heads Intel's European operations, said there would be a big expansion of the Atom semiconductor line, which analysts say have roughly half the performance of the Intel Celeron chips used in desktop computers.

Atom chips, which are mainly used in smart phones and netbook computers, would come out in four new "embedded system" versions which can be used in health-care machines, entertainment devices and some of the clever new displays coming to car dashboards.

For the first time, US-based Intel would join with another company to mass-produce semiconductors.

The partner for the Atom line would be Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), according to a statement from Intel dated Monday. Intel would give TSMC access to manufacturing secrets and allow TSMC to combine Atom chips with other processors.

The recession has hit the chip industry hard.

A US trade group, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), said the decline was the sharpest in the sector's history, with January sales of chips for computers, phones, digital cameras and multimedia systems off one third to 15.3 billion dollars.

The Atom line marks a challenge to the processor manufacturer ARM, which dominates the market for smart phones, which work much like computers but must eke out several days on one battery charge. Regular computer chips use too much power to be much use in phones. (dpa)