Cray is set to sell its supercomputer networking technology division to Intel for $140 million (£87m). As part of the transfer, the interconnect hardware development programme will bring with it 74 employees, now set to work under Intel's roof.

"By broadening our relationship with Intel, we are positioned to further penetrate the [high-performance computing] market," said Peter Ungaro, president and chief executive at Cray.

"This agreement also dramatically strengthens our balance sheet and increases our options for further growth, profitability and creating shareholder value," he continued.

The interconnect technology enables high speed communication between servers and powerful computing systems, something Intel is evidently keen to expand into. As consumer processors become more and more powerful, it's often the links between components that cause bottlenecks. While one day it is thought that light based data transfers on motherboards will be possible, for now Intel is forced to use the advanced developments of others to continue pushing the boundaries of performance.

Announced yesterday, the transaction is expected to be pushed through quite quickly. This is the second interconnect based purchase that Intel has made this year, buying up assets from QLogic that saw employees moving over with the technology division.

Source: CNET