"This prestigious designation recognises their ability to exercise technical leadership and role modeling and mentoring for less senior technical contributors," an Intel press statement said.

"In addition, Intel Fellows have earned the trust and respect of colleagues and management at Intel by having a substantial record of consistent performance, integrity and commitment to the interest of Intel," the statement said.

Intel Fellows are selected by a high profile Fellow Selection Committee comprising Intel executive staff and Intel Fellows who review nominations and recommendations from senior technical contributors and managers within the group, who are eligible to nominate candidates for appointment to Intel Fellow. Mr Rao, who migrated to the United States in 1983 with his family from Britain where he grew up, is director of analytical and microsystems technologies at Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group. Based at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, he specialises in developing analytical tools and methods for microprocessor performance characterisation, silicon debug and yield improvement.

He joined Intel in 1983 and has since worked on the development and corporate wide deployment of analytical capability and infrastructure for Intel products beginning with the 386 processor.

He received his bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Jesus College and Cambridge University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Cambridge University before joining Intel. Mr Rao holds 19 patents with several patents pending in the areas of analytical high-speed measurements and optical interconnects, two key areas in hardware performance. He has published over 20 research papers and has received three Intel Achievement Awards, all for developing and deploying analytical capability throughout Intel Corporation.