AUSTIN, Texas — Intel Corp. has hired Mark McDermott, who formerly ran Motorola Inc.'s Somerset design center, to head up its newly formed Texas Development Center.

Albert Yu, senior vice president in charge of Intel's microprocessor products group, said Intel will have two separate activities in Austin, Texas. An existing StrongARM development team reports to Ron Smith, who runs Intel's computer enhancement group in Folsom, Calif. McDermott was hired to manage a distinct activity, which hasn't yet been fully defined. But McDermott's responsibilities will come under Yu's bailiwick of microprocessor product development, rather than research. McDermott is the only person hired for the activity thus far, said Yu, who declined to say how many engineers would be added.

"Austin has become a high-tech center, and we wanted to be near the University of Texas and the talent coming out of there," he said.

Yu deflected suggestions that Intel was setting up the center to recruit a large number of MPU designers away from Motorola. About 300 workers were employed at Somerset when Motorola took over its operation earlier this year, after IBM backed out of the design operation. McDermott had been in charge of technology development at Motorola's Advanced System Technology Laboratory.

Motorola is attempting to downsize without cutting into the engineering muscle needed to develop a system-on-chip methodology. McDermott was supposed to help mastermind that effort.

Yu said the presence of Dell Computer Corp., based here, and Compaq Computer Corp. (Houston) had little to do with Intel's decision to locate in Austin. "We normally don't co-locate with our customers," he said.

Craig Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Intel, said at the recent Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., that Intel would set up parallel design teams for StrongARM, which was acquired as part of Intel's takeover of Digital Semiconductor. StrongARM designs will be used both for Intel's coprocessor initiative and for handheld computers and low-end set-top boxes, Barrett said.

Earlier this week Intel said it will cut 675 workers from its work force in Hudson, Mass., where the StrongARM, Alpha and various bridge and networking chips are made. An Intel spokesman said the remaining 1,000 workers at the Hudson facility will be able to keep production at the facility at the same level it had prior to the layoff.

Intel's Austin operation will join the company's six other microprocessor development sites, in Santa Clara, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Folsom, Calif.; Chandler, Ariz.; DuPont, Wash.; and Haifa, Israel.