A new controversy has been whipped up around the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s approach to fostering parallel processor research and development: the Wall Street Journal reports that the Agency actively backs Intel Corp, Thinking Machines Corp – and Tera Computer Co, which is a long way from shipping its first machine – at the expense of N-Cube Corp, Maspar Computer Corp, Active Memory Technology Ltd, Meiko Scientific Ltd and Bolt, Beranek & Newman Inc, which, perhaps significantly, has just thrown in the towel on the business; critics complain that research institutes get their machines subsidised – or even free – if they choose from one of the favoured vendors, and the procurement process is expedited; if they want a machine from one of the other companies, they’re on their own.
