UC Berkeley is partnering with Microsoft Corporation and Intel Corporation and will receive $10 million over the next five years to fund the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center.

The center, which opened in January, will use funding from the two computer giants to research parallel computing, which aims to increase speed by making computers with several small processors instead of one large one.

While the lab opened in January, final details of the partnership with the two companies had not been announced.

UC Berkeley was chosen out of 25 competing schools who submitted proposals to the corporations. Intel spokesperson Megan Langer said the campus' ideas appealed to the corporation.

"It was unanimously chosen based on overall scientific and technical merit ... Berkeley came up with really good ideas on what their research agenda could be to meet their goals," she said.

A similar center will also be established at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, resulting in a $10 million deal for the university.

UC Berkeley is also applying for the UC Discovery Grant from the state, which would provide up to $7 million for research.

The center seeks to develop applications aimed at consumer devices such as computers and cell phones. One such area is the process of image retrieval, said Kurt Keutzer, professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

This technology may allow cell phone users to have the name and personal information of an approaching acquaintance whispered in their ear.

According to center director David Patterson, the technology could be as little as one or two years away.

Patterson said the corporations' choice demonstrates that often overlooked engineering programs at public universities can stack up to private counterparts.

"What was nice about this competition was that certainly in engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Stanford (University) are the elite privates so it's great to see that public universities could beat them ..." he said.

While controversy surrounded a deal between UC Berkeley and BP earlier this year over concerns that corporate demands could compromise academic freedom, professors said this deal does not involve the same concerns.

"Our track record is changing the world and to change the world we need to get the funding to do that," Patterson said. "We're not doing what the industry tells us to do, we decided what we wanted to do and submitted that to the corporations."

Tags: MICROSOFT, INTEL, PARALLEL COMPUTING