Sun Labs Opens Its Doors

Ever wonder what goes on behind closed doors? Well I do (and I admit to being nosey), which is why I like it when companies like Sun Microsystems hosts events such as its annual Open House for Sun Labs, its applied research facility.

Among the projects on display at the this year's Open House are:

• Project Fortress, a new programming language invented at Sun Labs specifically for high productivity computing (HPC) applications.
• Project Sedna, multi-terabit data center interconnect based on proximity communication (chip-to-chip data transfer without wires).
• Project Darkstar, a Java technology-based game server technology that helps solve many of the distributed computing problems associated with modern online gaming.
• MPK 20, Sun's Virtual Workspace, powered by Project Darkstar. This "serious game" is the basis for research into collaborative work environments.
• Search Inside the Music, an advanced search capabilities for music that give users a more holistic sense of their collections, enables users to visually see their music collection in 3-D, and to search by the aural properties of the songs.
• Project Sun SPOT, an experimental platform for developing wireless sensor, robotics and swarm intelligence applications entirely in Java; Sun SPOT Developer Kit.

"The mission of Sun Labs is to look beyond the horizon to identify and solve the hardest technical problems businesses and governments may face. We identify these challenges by working closely with customers and engineers from within Sun's business units to gauge customer needs, and then collaborating on solutions," said Bob Sproull, director of Sun Labs and a Sun Fellow. "By focusing specifically on customer problems ranging from extending the lifespan of Moore's Law to applying next-generation security to mobile devices, Sun Labs has delivered measurable and results-oriented innovation throughout its history."

Posted by Jon Erickson at 11:12 AM  Permalink