Intel Opens I/O R&D facility in China
Online staff -- EDN, April 21, 2003
Intel Corp. today announced the formation of I/O Interconnect Labs to allow testing of next-generation interconnect technologies on its server platforms.
The first lab signals a continued Intel’s efforts in China, being located at Intel’s Beijing R&D facility. The lab is actually a joint effort between Intel and Tomen Corp., a Chinese distributor of enterprise technology.
The lab will initially focus on Intel architecture server clustering technologies, based on InfiniBand technology. Intel claims the InfiniBand architecture has emerged as a leading clustering technology in China, with multiple data centers in initial deployment of the technology. Intel’s lab currently features InfiniBand technology products from Agilent, InfiniCon, Mellanox, and Tomen.
In the future, the I/O Interconnect Lab will augment its technology focus to include PCI Express-enabled server technology, Intel said.
“Customers have shown an acute interest in testing the latest I/O technology on Intel architecture server platforms,” said Jim Pappas, director of initiative marketing for Intel’s enterprise platform group, in a statement. “With new enterprise interconnects including InfiniBand architecture and PCI Express technology becoming available on Intel Architecture server platforms over the next year, there is a need for lead users to have an easy access point to test our latest server clustering configurations.”
