Fergie's Tech Blog

Google, Microsoft, Sun to Form Research Alliance

John Markoff writes in The New York Times:

With federal funds for basic computer science research at universities in decline, three of the industry's leading companies are joining to help fill the void.

University of California computer scientists plan to announce on Thursday that the companies - Google, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems - will underwrite a $7.5 million laboratory on the Berkeley campus. The new research center, called the Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems Laboratory, will focus on the design of more dependable computing systems.

The Berkeley researchers say that under the terms of their agreement with the three companies, the fruits of the research will be nonproprietary and freely licensed. Each company has agreed to support the project with $500,000 annually for five years. Although the companies are frequently rivals and only occasionally allies, they have concluded that they can operate most effectively by bringing technology innovations to market quickly.

posted by Fergie @ 12/15/2005 11:34:00 AM