Cisco donates 10 super servers to Va. schools

Cisco Systems Inc. on Thursday donated more than $500,000 worth of super

computer servers to Virginia's Regional Academic Governor's Schools.

Sue Keith, the public-sector director at Cisco, said she decided to make

the donation because "the place where changes are being made is in the schools.

The Governor's Schools in particular are helping to drive the high-tech

field."

Keith and Lieutenant Governor John Hager were at the announcement of the

donation Thursday at the Governor's School in Richmond.

The state's 11 Governor's Schools are magnet schools for exceptional high

school students. The servers will be used for four programs: pre-engineering,

fine arts, mathematics and robotics.

"It's all about the students; this is not about Cisco," Keith said. "This

is so students can be better employees and better college students with

new technology."

The 10 Silicon Graphics Inc. Challenge XL servers are three years old and

became surplus as the company bought new ones, Keith said. Before being

given to the schools, the servers were inspected to ensure that they work

properly and were loaded with the proper software.