Briefly noted

-- Dell Inc. last week opened a 55,000-square-meter factory in Xiamen, China, doubling its manufacturing capacity in the country. The facility will produce computers for customers in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Dell's other Chinese plant, also located in Xiamen, makes systems that are sold within China itself.

-- The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association said that chip sales by Taiwanese vendors climbed 28 percent in this year's first quarter to 307 billion New Taiwanese dollars ($9.6 billion U.S.). Chip makers based in Taiwan sold devices worth 240.7 billion New Taiwanese dollars ($7.5 billion) in the same period last year, according to the trade group.

-- Accenture Ltd. last week announced the opening of a facility in Warsaw that will offer business proc-ess outsourcing services in more than a dozen European languages. Hamilton, Bermuda-based Accenture said the BPO center will eventually employ as many as 1,000 people and provide services in areas such as finance, accounting, supply chain management and human resources.

-- Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. in Makati City said it has acquired New York-based SPI Technologies Inc. as part of an effort to become the largest provider of business process outsourcing services in the Philippines. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. SPI was founded in the Philippines in 1980 and moved its headquarters to New York last year.