SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 28 -- Intel Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held VxTel Inc. in a cash transaction worth approximately $550 million. VxTel is a semiconductor company that has developed Voice over Packet (VoP) products that deliver high-quality voice and data communications over optical networks.
    "The telecommunications industry is going through a major transition," said Mark Christensen, vice president and general manager of Intel's Network Communications Group. "The convergence of voice and data traffic through a common network enables service providers and carriers to deliver a wide variety of new services without the cost of expanding and maintaining two different networks. VxTel's Voice over Packet solution, together with the broad family of Intel Internet Exchange Architecture communications components, will enable our customers to accelerate their designs to take advantage of this new opportunity."
    Intel supplies communications silicon and software building blocks for networking and telecommunications equipment providers. The Intel Internet Exchange Architecture (Intel IXA) provides a framework for rapidly deploying intelligence into networks.