I would say that in general, Cisco is a very strong research and development organization.

It's always a challenge whenever you have to nurture more than one culture inside an organization. When I say culture, you have one group that will have one set of priorities, and another with another set. It creates a different cultural environment.

We are pursuing both of these development programs in close collaboration with research groups at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Our goal has been to more effectively promote the value of publicly-supported research at our universities, both to the Congress and to the general public.

When I was research head of General Motors and wanted a problem solved, I'd place a table outside the meeting room with a sign: LEAVE SLIDE RULES HERE! If I didn't do that, I'd find some engineer reaching for his slide rule. Then he'd be on his feet saying, ''Boss you can't do that.''

Our plan is that sometime early next year, we will then start to put this on the Cisco overall price list.