IBM Customizes Chip For Cisco

IBM is making the chip that powers Cisco Systems' new carrier-grade router for directing data, voice, and video across the Internet.

Both companies designed the Cisco Silicon Packet Processor for the network-equipment maker's new Carrier Routing System, or CRS-1, the companies said Wednesday in a joint statement. The chip is the result of a multiyear semiconductor-technology-development partnership between San Jose, Calif.-based, Cisco and IBM, of Armonk, N.Y.

In the last three years, IBM and Cisco have jointly developed 10 custom chips, which are being manufactured at IBM facilities in East Fishkill, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt.