Seven new companies added their names Monday to the list of backers of the HyperTransport interconnect standard, including IBM Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., and EMC Corp., the HyperTransport Technology Consortium announced Monday.

HyperTransport is a standard for linking chips such as the CPU (central processing unit) and the memory in a system. The standard increases the speed at which data can be moved around the chip, and reduces the number of buses required to handle those links.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), a founding member of the consortium, uses HyperTransport in its new Opteron server chip to integrate the memory controller and the CPU. The technology has been credited by analysts and reviewers as one of the main factors behind Opteron's competitive performance.

Apple Computer Inc., also a charter member, used HyperTransport in its new PowerMac G5, which uses IBM's new PowerPC 970 chip.

LTX Corp., Media Fusion, National Semiconductor Corp., and Network Appliance Inc. also joined the consortium Monday.