US Signs Deal With Google To Develop Chips For Researchers

The U.S. Commerce Department said it reached a cooperative research and development agreement with Alphabet's Google to produce chips that researchers can use to develop new nanotechnology and semiconductor devices. From a report: The deal was signed between the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Google. The chips will be manufactured by semiconductor company SkyWater Technology at its Bloomington, Minnesota, semiconductor foundry, the department said on Tuesday. Google will pay the initial cost of setting up production and will subsidize the first production run, according to the agreement. NIST, with university research partners, will design the circuitry for the chips.

Re:

[aitikin]

Who gets the copyrights/patents?

I was curious too. FTA:

"NIST anticipates designing as many as 40 different chips optimized for different applications. Because the chip designs will be open source, researchers will be able to pursue new ideas without restriction and share data and device designs freely," the Commerce Department said in a statement.

...and now I'm curious what license(s) they'll be under...

Re:

[gtall]

With Universities involved, I doubt Google will get to cart off the copyrights/patents. Universities are ravenous for those. The U.S. government researchers can publish in journals but the journal owners do not get the copyrights, those belong to the U.S. government. Government researchers can also patent inventions but the government owns the patents. If it is split like this, does anyone know who gets the copyrights/patents?

Re:

[Whateverthisis]

If NIST designs it, then the US Government owns it. Given it's purpose as a research standard, I imagine they'll then license it out as an open license so anyone can use those chips and build upon them as a standard; that is usually NIST's MO.

Google is a leader in how many areas?

[Futurepower(R)]

How did Google become a leader of electronic development?

Google is a leader in how many areas?

Re:

[gtall]

Google apparently is not doing the development, they simply have money.

The U.S. Commerce Department

[oldgraybeard]

Is going to be involved in designing chips? lol Ha hahaha rofl guess someone has to pay Googles bills.

Re:

[gtall]

NIST is highly qualified in a number of areas. I take it you have no experience with them.

Re:

[oldgraybeard]

I am all to familiar with NIST and your right you got me!
But in government, isolated competence does not mean the government sausage grinder with produce anything beneficial or worthwhile no matter how much money and effort is committed.
Whether the funds and resources are used well (which is rare for government) or wasted/stolen (which is the normal for government).

We Need Controller Chips for Cars and Missiles

[BrendaEM]

We don't need government payouts to google for advertising chips.

Slightly more info:

[Hartree]

But not all that much. These are apparently chips for multilayer stacks that can measure the performance of MEMS and sensors stacked on them during development. Here's a link to a news release on the NIST website:

https://www.nist.gov/news-even... [nist.gov]

payoff or favor

[Osgeld]

Skywalker ranch, shit my bad was founded in 2017 and has a share price of 10 bucks, sounds like some guys got drunk went out muddin in a beat up Chevy Silverado and hit someone's dog

Crazy vague description.

[OneOfMany07]

I care much less about details like who or where if I have no clue what they're making. "Chips for nano technology and semiconductor devices" means nothing.

Corn or potato?

[wakeboarder]

Just had to ask