An Indian American holding five US patents in the field of advanced digital electronics has been named vice-president of a Texas-based network processor company. Agere Inc., which provides multi-protocol processing for high-speed voice and data networks, announced the appointment of Sajal Ghosal as vice-president of engineering.

Ghosal, who holds a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, and a Master's in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, will direct the efforts of Agere's hardware, software, verification, documentation and quality assurance.

Ghosal will also be responsible for the design of Agere's networking semiconductor products. ``We are excited about the engineering leadership Sajal will bring to our team,'' Agere CEO Ford Tamer said in a statement.``As one of the fastest-growing start-up companies in Austin, we value his track record and proven ability toquickly solve problems and adapt to changing situations,'' Tamer said. ``He (Ghosal) knows how to keep his group focussed on the end result, which can mean the difference between making a product shipshape or not.''

Ghosal previously served as director of engineering for telecom products at Level One Communications in Folsom, California, where he worked since 1986. Prior to that, he worked for Intel Corporation's communication products division.

Agere's director of communications, Bob Merritt, said the company has embarked on a novel approach to solve the ``packet classification'' problem. ``The company's patented search algorithm is implemented directly in hardware and should provide a dramatic wire-speed throughput advantage relative to RISC-based processors,'' he said.

Agere is a network processor company providing datacom and telecom equipment manufacturers with powerful multi-protocol solutions for complex Layer 2 through 7 processing.