Topspin to set up R&D base in Bangalore

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE : Topspin Communications, a US-based technology start-up is setting up a research and development (R&D) base in Bangalore . The company plans to invest $10 million to set up the centre where about 50 experienced engineers will do cutting edge product design work in the rapidly growing utility computing space. Spearheading the three-year-old start-up’s India plans is old Intel hand Avtar Saini, who is designated vice-president Asia operations. Among other things, Mr Saini is credited with leading the Pentium processor design team, managing the development of the Itanium processor while at Intel. “We are very excited to be adding an accomplished industry veteran like Avtar to our team,” said Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of Topspin. “Avtar brings to Topspin a unique understanding of product development, industry dynamics, technology roadmaps and strategic management issues,” he added. Utility computing is based on the pay-as-you-use principle, as is already practised by utilities for electricity, water, etc. Topspin has already delivered the industry’s first programmable server switch — a new category of data centre infrastructure designed to allow virtual servers to be created by interconnecting server, storage and networking resources on demand. Topspin’s product sits between the servers and the storage and internet access points. The product also arrives in time for usage in grid computing needs, where clusters of computers need to be connected. Topspin’s product will be sold by server vendors IBM, HP, Sun, NEC and Dell under their own labels. Newer versions and additional product lines will be developed at the India centre.