As growth in its core microprocessor business slows, Intel Corp. has been gaining access to new technology through various acquisitions. Its recent agreement to purchase Xircom, based in Thousand Oaks, California, for $748-million, is a move that will allow the company to expand into product lines that connect mobile devices to corporate networks.

Xircom is a supplier of PC Cards and small-form factor network products. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Xircom sells cards for laptops as well as add-ons for wireless Internet access for handhelds, organizers such as Handspring Inc.’s Visor, and also sells a tiny organizer, called the Rex MicroPDA.

Dirk Gates, chief executive officer of Xircom, said that being a part of Intel will give the company an opportunity to move into the market for network access cards that are embedded into computers, rather than just add-on cards slipped into a slot on the machine. Xircom has been edging into the embedded market on its own, but only with modest success because it had to license most of the technology from outside sources, Mr. Gates added.

Upon completion of the acquisition, expected during the first quarter, Xircom will become a subsidiary of Intel.