Microsoft, Intel to fund parallel computing push

Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. said Tuesday that they are putting up a combined $20 million over the next five years to fund "parallel computing" research centers at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

The companies are hoping to figure out how to make software run more effectively across multiple computer processors at the same time. They say the effort reflects the industry's shift toward systems with multiple cores, providing more than one engine for processing software.

Announcing the initiative, Tony Hey of Microsoft Research gave several hypothetical applications to explain the potential the company sees in parallel computing, such as intelligent "digital assistant" software that would sift incoming e-mails and calls and determine what's important after learning how the user likes to interact with people.

Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, has identified parallel computing as a big long-term focus for the company.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is developing semiconductors that pack multiple processors onto one piece of silicon, improving their ability to do many calculations simultaneously. That means programmers need to create software that can take advantage of so-called parallel processing.

Today, only the most powerful computer servers, used to maintain corporate databases and networks, can run software that fully taps multiple processors. Commonly used programs such as word processors and Web browsers can use only part of those chips, limiting the capabilities of computers and mobile devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

"If we succeed in creating a parallel Web browser, then hand-helds, like iPhones, are going to replace laptops," said Rastislav Bodik, an associate professor in the computer science department at Berkeley. Bodik said his team aims to have a programming language ready in a year and a prototype for academic use available in three.

Berkeley has applied for a $7 million grant to supplement the companies' investment, and the Illinois school will commit $8 million of its own.

Under the arrangement, Intel and Microsoft will have nonexclusive, royalty-free rights to any patents filed on research coming out of the center, Hey said.

They also will have the right to negotiate exclusive licenses based on the research, Hey said.