Intel Opens Research Lab in Cambridge

Chip making giant Intel Thursday said it has opened a new open collaborative research lab at the University Of Cambridge, in England.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip making giant said the lab is an open research collaboration designed to “accelerate the convergence of computing and communications.” Intel said the projects will focus on developing networking, systems and software technologies to enable new types of distributed systems .

“The Intel Research Cambridge laboratory supports our vision of Proactive Computing, a world where millions of tiny wireless devices, embedded throughout the environment, work together to anticipate our needs and proactively act on our behalf. For these billions of networked devices to positively impact the way we live, work, learn and play, we need to understand how they should be designed and organized,” Intel vice president of Corporate Technology and director of Research David Tennenhouse said in a statement.

The lab will be initially focusing on the challenges of delivering new communications and networking technologies to applications developers.

“This will require a cross-disciplinary investigation, involving extensive prototyping of networked systems and applications in a variety of settings. The broad range of research capabilities at the University of Cambridge provides a rich collaborative environment for Intel and university researchers to explore this future.”

The fundamental networking research is expected to cover mathematical modeling of network traffic to emerging technologies such as optical switching. The Cambridge lab joins three other Intel labs at universities in Seattle, Berkley and Pittsburgh to make up the Intel Research Network.

Between 20 and 25 Intel scientists and an equal number of university faculty, graduate students, and visiting researchers are expected to be part of the new facility. The lab will be directed by Dr. Derek ‘Mac’ McAuley, an affiliated lecturer at Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and founding member of the Microsoft and Marconi research labs in Cambridge.

“We have really landed on our feet here: a technological relationship with a world leading company who sees the benefit of putting research results in the public domain,” said University of Cambridge professor Ian Leslie.

Elsewhere in Europe, Intel Labs Barcelona located at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya is focused on proprietary R&D in the area of microprocessors. Additionally, Intel’s Labs in Russia are working to build a next-generation Intel R&D operation with both technology research and product development capabilities. Overall, Intel’s R&D division has more than 200 employees and contractors working in Moscow, Sarov and Nizhny Novgorod.