As part of IBM's , the Xi'an lab will include a dedicated team of more than 200 software engineers and IT architects, said Mills.

Mills declined to provide details on additional R&D investment and headcount growth to be brought by this current move, but a spokesperson from the Xi'an facility estimated that headcount for the lab will grow from 202 last year to 219 in 2010.

Prior to the IBM acquisition, the Xi'an lab established in 2004 was already SPSS' most important R&D facility worldwide, said the lab spokesperson, adding that the lab had more than half of SPSS' R&D resources and contributed to all product lines of the analytics firm.