MUNICH, GERMANY -- Intel Corporation today announced an agreement to conduct microprocessor research and development at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. Under the terms of this agreement, UPC will operate a research center, Intel Labs Barcelona (ILB), on behalf of Intel. In a speech at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Patrick Gelsinger said that Intel is teaming up with the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) to work on microprocessor research and development. As part of this relationship, Intel will open a research facility on the UPC campus in Barcelona, Spain, later this year. The center will help expand Intel's industry leading capabilities in microprocessor research and development, as well as enable Intel to continue delivering industry-leading performance on future generations of microprocessor. This relationship maintains ILB's academic origins, enabling Intel to work with some of the best microprocessor researchers in Europe without separating them from the European academic community. This unique arrangement offers significant benefits to both parties. Intel's microprocessor researchers will collaborate with researchers from UPC's internationally recognized Computer Architecture Department on advanced microprocessor technologies for future Intel® Itanium® processor and Intel® Pentium® processor family designs. Research and development efforts will focus on increasing processor performance, reducing power consumption and extending battery life. The center will be led by three professors from UPC: Antonio Gonzalez, who has been a leading microarchitecture researcher for more than 16 years, and Roger Espasa and Toni Juan, experts on 64-bit processors. "Relationships with leading international universities expose Intel to ground-breaking R&D occurring throughout the world and gives us access to top researchers on a global scale," said Gelsinger. "UPC has a group of highly talented researchers -- renowned experts in their field -- who have a track record in leading-edge microarchitectural research." "Europe has a strong history in innovation and technology developments that are relevant for markets worldwide," said Maria Marced, Intel vice president, Sales and Marketing Group, and general manager, Europe, Middle East, Africa Operations. "We believe our investment in UPC will give us unprecedented access to the best ideas Europe has to offer." The Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya is one of the largest technical universities in Spain with approximately 30,000 undergraduates. Its dedicated Computer Architecture Department, with about 70 full-time faculty members focusing on computer engineering and telecommunications engineering, performs research in areas ranging from VLSI Systems Design to Processor Microarchitecture and Code Generation. Intel has been funding university research since 1980. Intel currently oversees and supports research projects in more than 75 universities around the world.