Intel has made its strongest commitment to developing Linux for the telecoms market to date, outlining what it sees as priorities for the development of the open source operating system.

Howard Bubb, general manager of Intel's converged communications division, told delegates at Intel's Developers Forum in Amsterdam this week that developing Linux to become a robust operating system for telcos would be a key priority for the chip giant.

In particular, Intel wants to develop improved clustering and hot swap support for Linux. Bubb also singled out manageability and reliability as important
development goals.

The goal is to develop the operating system as a platform for messaging services (WAP, unified messaging and the like), as well as telco-orientated
functions such as billing, provisioning and quality of service.

Intel hopes that by beefing up the capabilities of Linux it will enjoy greater share in the telecoms market, which makes heavy use of Risc-based processors
and Unix servers.

On the network equipment front, Intel yesterday announced a development environment for its IXP1200 Network Processor family which supports Linux.
It also introduced two new network processors: the IXP1240, which was developed for high-speed ATM kit; and the IXP 1250, which features improved error correcting code, designed to provide the high-availability needed by carriers. ®