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On November 6, 2001, Intel and UTCS officially launch their Intel Internet Exchange Architecture (IXA) Lab.

Intel is proud to announce the donation of some of its most advanced PC and networking equipment to UT Austin. The purpose of this donation is to equip the university with a state-of-the-art facility to enable research and course development on Intel's family of IXP(R) network processors.

With this facility, students and faculty will be to access a computer network that can be configured to execute a large variety of communication and networking functions. "The fascinating aspect of network processors," states Dr. Raj Yavatkar, senior software architect for Intel's network processor division, "is the fact that based on the software that is developed for them, these devices can perform very different tasks." Dr. Yavatkar will be officially launching this Lab on November 6, 2001, followed by a presentation to faculty and students on network processing.

Traditionally, different communications and networking functions were handled by custom-made, special-purpose microprocessors. The fact that these devices, also known as Application Specific Instruction-Set Computers or ASICs were custom made for each application made them expensive and their development slow. Today, with the advent of network processors, specific, customized functions are created in software and simply executed by the processor. This not only saves precious time in the creation of new networking and communications applications but also makes their actual development much less expensive.

UT Austin students will now be able to learn the ins and outs of programming Intel's IXP (R) family of processors as well as inventing innovative new software applications for them. "We are pleased to have this Lab operational," states Dr. Harrick Vin, head researcher for this project. "Not only are we able to carry out cutting-edge research here, we're also preparing our students with the critical skills of programming these complex new devices."

Please join us on Tuesday, November 6, 2001, at 2:30pm in ACES 6.402 for a brief presentation and the UT Austin IXA Lab ribbon cutting ceremony.

Following the open house and reception, Raj Yavatkar, Intel's Chief Software Architect for IXA, will present a Friends of Computer Science Technology Leaders Lecture. Please join us for these exciting events.

For further information contact: Kimberly W. Sills, Intel Academic Relations (503) 456-1628, or SteveThomas at the UT Department of Computer Sciences (512) 471-9533.