Intel Opens Development Center in Russia

BOSTON (06/23/2000) - Intel Corp. has opened a software development center in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where workers will write and test code with the aim of building it into future processors to increase efficiency.

Intel has made 100 subcontractors it has hired over the past seven years in Russia part of the Intel full-time research staff, calling them "Blue Badges."

Initially the employees will focus on what Intel calls "performance libraries," a bank of math equations and code used to make software products.

In the future, the workers in Russia will make software tools that vendors and operating systems will use for advanced graphics and speech recognition programs, like Intel's Strongarm Microprocessor and the Internet Exchange IXP1200, a networking processor, said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. Intel hopes to eventually have 500 researchers working at the new center.

"They're beefing up their programming capability in a place that could turn into a strong economic area," said Martin Reynolds, a vice president and research fellow at Dataquest Inc. "I wouldn't be surprised to see that team expand and develop software in other areas."

Initially, engineers at the development center will create and compile code as part of the Intel Architecture Group, which designs and builds the Intel microprocessors used in PCs and servers.

As for why Intel decided to open the center in Russia, Mulloy said the company looks wherever it can to find resources, although the majority of Intel's development still takes place in the U.S.

"There's a pool of talent there," Mulloy said of Nizhny Novgorod.

"They're not a strong economy," Reynolds said of Russia,"But you'll find that there's some really talented programmers in these areas. They're usually cheap, too."

Intel, in Santa Clara, California, can be reached at +1-408-765-3484 or at http://www.intel.com/.

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