Intel has contracted chip-maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSCM), major to make its SoFIA family of handset chips using 28nm process. The order is expected to keep TSMC's 28nm process production lines humming in H1, 2015. The company has begun making SoFIA 3G chips and will begin to make SoFIA 3G-R and SoFIA LTE chips in H1, 2015.

Intel's SoFIA 3G chip combines 3G baseband IC and Atom duo-core processor. A quad-core SoFIA 3G-R chip is expected to be released in H1, 2015, followed by a SoFIA LTE chip in the second half of 2015.

SoFIA chips are for low-mid-range smartphones and to lure market share away from established vendors Qualcomm and MediaTek .

Intel has managed to bring its chips to tablets but but success seems years away in smartphones, despite billions of dollars spent.

This has forced the company to parter with Chinese companies to build smartphone chips and is also relying on third parties to manufacture those chips.

Intel this year partnered with Chinese chip makers Rockchip and Spreadtrum to design chips for low-cost mobile devices. A fallout with Rockchip led to Intel partnering with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) to produce an initial batch of low-cost mobile chips.

During a speech earlier this week, Intel president Renee James said the company will bring the manufacture of those chips in-house by 2016.