Leader of the team responsible for the architecture of IBM network processors, Calvignac is a 1997 IBM Fellow. Network processors are an integrated circuit which has a feature set specifically targeted at the networking application domain; they are typically software programmable devices with generic characteristics similar to general purpose central processing units that are commonly used in many different types of equipment and products.
He joined IBM in 1971 as a Development Engineer in telephone switching products. He received an Engineering degree in 1969 from the Grenoble Institute of Technology, France. In 1998, at the IBM Laboratory in the Research Triangle Park, located near Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, he and his team initiated the IBM network processor activities.
Calvignac had previously been responsible for system design of the ATM switching products, which he initiated with his team in 1992 at the IBM Laboratory in La Gaude, France. Before that, he had held different management and technical leader positions for architecture and development of communication controller products at the La Gaude Laboratory.
He has been awarded more than 125 patents, mostly in the field of communication and networking, and has published more than 90 papers or contributions to standards. Calvignac was named an IBM Fellow in 1997, IBM's highest technical honor. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in Europe and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the U.S.
