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Google, Microsoft, Sun to fund $7.5 million Internet research lab

December 15, 2005 /

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Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are setting aside their rivalry to back a new Internet research laboratory aimed at helping entrepreneurs introduce more groundbreaking ideas to a mass audience.

Sun Microsystems Inc. also is joining the $7.5 million project at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems, or RAD, lab was scheduled to open today and will dole out $1.5 million annually over five years, with each company contributing equally.

Staffed initially by six UC-Berkeley faculty members and 10 computer science graduates, the lab plans to develop an array of Web-based software services that will be given away to anyone who wants them.

The lab’s services could help launch another revolutionary company like online auctioneer eBay Inc. or even Google, which has emerged as one of the world’s most valuable companies just seven years after its inception in a Silicon Valley garage.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/12/15/google_microsoft_sun_to_fund_75_million_internet_research_lab/

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3 tech titans to fund lab

UC Berkeley to help Internet entrepreneurs

Matthew Yi, Chronicle Staff Writer

Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems are teaming up to donate $7.5 million for a new computer science lab at UC Berkeley in an effort that they hope will make it easier for Internet entrepreneurs to test their ideas.

The Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed systems laboratory seeks to figure out ways to automate servicing, managing and maintaining large data centers, computer science Professor Randy Katz said Wednesday.

"We know how to scale the hardware, but we don’t know how to manage it. That’s a real impediment," he said.

In fact, companies like Google and Microsoft that have large server computer farms or data centers have to rely on a small army of engineers who constantly maintain and service those systems, Katz said.

Full Story: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/15/BUGNHG876V1.DTL&type=business