The three IT giants are providing an average of $500,000 each a year over five years to fund research at the Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed systems laboratory (RAD Lab) into alternatives to the traditional waterfall model of software development where work is completed in orderly stages.
Web services code that is constantly updated enables more flexible systems and a rapid response to emerging requirements, but also requires a large technical support staff, according to RAD Lab founding director and UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, David Patterson.
Our goal with this center is to develop technology that eliminates the need for such a large organization, opening up innovation opportunities for smaller groups or even individual entrepreneurs, he said in announcing the lab.
In keeping with Berkeley’s tradition of making innovation available via free and open source licenses, any software that emerges from the RAD Lab will be distributed using the Berkeley Software Distribution license.
Representatives from Microsoft, Sun, and Google will act as consultants and provide advice for the RAD Lab’s participants.
Additional smaller contributions are also expected from other industry vendors as 80% of the RAD Lab’s funding will come from industry, while grants from the National Science Foundation and the UC Discovery and Microelectronics Innovation and Computer Research Opportunities programs will make up the remaining 20%.
