In what has been characterized as strategic move toward exascale supercomputing, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) has acquired QLogic's (NASDAQ: QLGC) InfiniBand intellectual property (IP) for $125 million. The networking processor and software specialist is also a builder of Fibre Channel switches, routers, adapters and ASICs.
“The sale of these InfiniBand assets will benefit our shareholders by enabling us to provide better focus and greater investment in growth opportunities for the data center with our converged networking, enterprise Ethernet, and storage area networking products," said Simon Biddiscombe, president and chief executive officer, QLogic.
Related Story: EMC, QLogic pair on Fibre Channel switching for data centers
The sale is expected to close within this quarter, following the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions. Through the deal, Intel seeks to boost networking portfolio toward providing scalable high-performance computing (HPC) fabric technology for ExaFLOP/s supercomputing performance by 2018
Added QLogic's Biddiscombe, "The sale of these assets to a leading technology innovator and recognized HPC leader will provide a greater investment stream in high performance fabrics for InfiniBand partners and customers.”
SOURCES: Intel Acquires QLogic's InfiniBand Franchise (eweek.com)
Intel Makes Exascale-Bet on InfinBand-Based Supercomputing (networkcomputing.com)
QLogic Press Release
