The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.
December - 2005 - issue > On The Cover
Algorithm Alchemist
ST Team
If you are not a techie, to put it simply routers send packets of information to the neighboring router so they eventually reach the destination. Just like a mail going from post office to post office to finally reach the recipient. In between many services can be provided from router to router like security and quality.
The question is how to provide many services at one shot in a given timeframe through algorithms using hardware. Isn’t that challenging, asks Pullela. But he did it and gave the vision to truncate an earlier algorithm than ran to thousands of lines to a 700-line algorithm for a router called Catalyst 6500, which has generic usage across all products at Cisco. Now wherever Cisco Routers are in use—be it in remote surgery or supply chain — this algorithm plays a crucial role.
“Innovation can’t be taught; only picked up. Early in your career innovation really does not take off because you are picking up domain knowledge,” says Pullela. Innovation could be out-of-the-box thinking but it boils down to, he says, “Hey! Is there a simpler way of doing it for making things better?” That is the funda behind successfully innovating—and Pullela got it right.
Venkat Pullela 36, Senior Manager, Internet Systems Business Unit, Cisco.
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