Intel says 'hola' to Barcelona labs

European design and engineering have long been used to market automobiles. Now Intel is hoping they can help boost its processors.

The chipmaker on Tuesday announced it will establish a new processor research lab on the campus of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

The facility, to be called Intel Labs Barcelona, will be staffed by engineers from both Intel and the university, which will be in charge of operating it.

Intel hopes that the cross-pollination of ideas between its researchers and those in the university's Computer Architecture Department will result in new microprocessor architecture designs that make its Pentium and Itanium chips perform better and use less power, officials said.

The agreement augments the chipmaker's long-standing relationship with academic research around the world. Intel uses a network of about 75 universities to do the groundwork in research into new technologies. Typically, Intel adopts a technology in its own research labs only after it has been proven by university research.

The company said that by establishing the lab in Barcelona, it can work more closely with some of the best chip engineers in Europe.

The university "has a group of highly talented researchers, renowned experts in their field, who have a track record in leading-edge microarchitectural research," Pat Gelsinger, Intel's chief technology officer, said in a statement.

Intel Labs Barcelona will be run by three Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya professors: Antonio Gonzalez, an expert in processor architecture, and Roger Espasa and Toni Juan, who are authorities on 64-bit chips.

The Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya has about 30,000 undergraduates. Its Computer Architecture Department includes some 70 full-time faculty members.