Chiaro Networks, developer of true infrastructure-class IP/MPLS routing platforms, today announced that Steven J. Wallach, the company's vice president of technology and a luminary in the field of supercomputers, will give the keynote speech for the GridNets section of BROADNETS 2004. This first annual international conference on broadband networks will take place this week in San Jose, Calif.; Wallach will deliver his keynote speech titled "Super Computing, Evolution of the Grid" at 8:15 a.m. on Friday, October 29. "It is significant that BROADNETS 2004, a conference devoted to broadband networks, has an entire section on networks for Grid applications," said Wallach. "I believe that my inclusion as the keynote speaker in the conference's GridNets section, given my expertise in supercomputing and Grid computing and my position at a telecommunications company, demonstrates the wider industry recognition of the interdependence of these seemingly disparate disciplines. As a company, Chiaro has broken new ground in the integration and application of supercomputing and telecommunications, as well as networking and photonics, as important in building next-generation IP networks." Wallach, in addition to his position as Chiaro's vice president of technology, also serves as an adviser to CenterPoint Venture Partners and as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy ASCI program. He was co-founder of Convex Computers, where he served as chief technology officer and senior vice president of development. After Hewlett-Packard purchased Convex, Wallach became the chief technology officer of HP's Large Systems Group. He was also a visiting professor at Rice University from 1998 to 1999. Prior to Convex, Wallach was the manager of advanced development for Data General. His efforts on the MV/8000 are chronicled in The Soul of the New Machine by Pulitzer prizewinner Tracy Kidder. Wallach has 33 patents and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the National Academy study of the future of supercomputing; he is an IEEE Fellow; and he was a founding member of the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). Additionally, he is a member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Shared Cyber infrastructure (SCI) and Distributed Terascale Facility (DTF) review teams. BROADNETS 2004 is a new conference focusing on broadband networking, covering the entire gamut of next-generation networks with ultra-high bandwidth, from access networks (xDSL, cable, EPON, broadband wireless, multi-Gigabit uplinks) to regional and metropolitan networks and wide-area core networks. The conference is aimed at researchers from academia, government and industry. Enstara: the First Infrastructure-Class IP/MPLS Platform The Chiaro Enstara(TM) router, the world's first highly available infrastructure-class IP/MPLS platform, defines infrastructure-class with the ultra reliability versatility and product longevity required to alleviate telecommunications carriers' "crisis of cost." Integrating a number of Chiaro technological breakthroughs -- and the result of applying expertise in the fields of networking, supercomputing, telecommunications and photonics -- the intelligent, carefully architected Enstara platform is the first to meld aspects of all these disciplines. As a result, it leads to no less than the transformation of IP networks. The same qualities that make the Enstara platform ideally suited for next-generation IP networks -- notably, ultra reliability, scalability, flexibility and line-speed performance -- also make it ideally suited for Grid applications. As a company, Chiaro Networks has embraced the vision of what Grids can and should become, and its telecommunications products are helping companies worldwide to move steadily toward Grid computing of the future. The Enstara IP/MPLS routing platform offers real value now, by helping service providers overcome their crisis of cost and begin gaining the efficiencies and economies associated with converging their disparate networks onto a unified IP infrastructure. At the same time, the Enstara platform was architected from the outset to pave the way for the future capabilities of Grid computing, as envisioned by today's best thinkers.