Intel Corp. and HP said Thursday they had reached an agreement under which Intel would hire engineers developing Itanium processors at HP. The move will totally withdraw HP from chip design and emphasize certain changes in computer maker’s business model.

Intel hire HP’s Intel Itanium processor design team based in Ft. Collins, Colorado. The deal strengthens Intel’s investment in the Itanium architecture and “bolsters the development of multi-core processors”. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The agreement means that all Itanium processor design will be done by Intel, while HP will concentrate on system building as well as overall promotion of the Itanium among clients and software makers.

The Itanium idea was set back in 1992 by Intel Corp. as well as Hewlett-Packard Corp. and was meant to be an ambitious project under which the two companies would develop revolutionary processor architecture for computers.

Santa Clara, California-based Intel said HP’s Ft. Collins team plays a key role in the design of several current and future Itanium platforms, including the forthcoming dual core processors codenamed Montecito and Montvale. The team will continue to work on these processors, in addition to working on the multi-core processor, codenamed Tukwila, and on other future Itanium processors. The team will join the Intel Enterprise Platforms Group.

In a related announcement, HP extended its commitment to invest more than $3 billion over the next three years to help drive Intel Itanium 2-based Integrity servers to a leadership position in the $20 billion server market segment currently served by RISC processors. The investment spans research and development, server and system software design, partner-led application solutions, and sales and marketing.

Since 2001, Intel has added resources to several Itanium programs, and hired engineering teams from both the former Compaq Computer Corporation as well as HP. Itanium processor design is located in California, Colorado and Massachusetts. In contrast, HP has been gradually withdrawing from chip development process for some time now.