Intel invests in new connection technology

Posted: 08/22/2000 Source: CNET Added by: Kim Heise

Intel and others have invested $9 million in a start-up that will make chips for the upcoming InfiniBand technology for high-speed connections among servers, storage systems and networks. Start-up Banderacom isn't the only one making InfiniBand chips--IBM, Intel and Hewlett-Packard spinoff Agilent also have expressed interest in selling InfiniBand chips--but Banderacom is focused solely on InfiniBand, said Phill Grove, vice president of marketing and a former 12-year employee of Motorola. The start-up, with less than three dozen employees and based in Austin, Texas, was founded in December. But its chips will emerge soon: "We expect silicon by the end of the year," Grove said. InfiniBand, scheduled to debut in computers later next year, is a connection technology developed by Intel, Sun Microsystems, Dell Computer, Compaq Computer, IBM, HP and others. It's a critical element among the constellation of heavy-duty technologies trickling down from high-end computers to lower-priced models.