News AMD gets $12.6 million for exascale research

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/07/12/amd-doe-exascale/1

 

That's odd... How does this differ from the research grants pulled from Intel a while back because it's corporate assistance?

 

I'm guessing the difference is intel makes enough money as it is, so giving a ridiculously profitable company more money for research is basically telling intel employees to wipe their asses with money; its literally more than they can spend. when you get to that point, you just look like an asshole for donating. AMD on the other hand is in desperate need of large sums of cash like this and is notably falling behind the past couple years, so giving them they money is actually productive. I wouldn't call something like that as simple as "corporate assistance".

Besides, think of it in this point of view - what REALLY sparks innovation and research: money or head-to-head competition? Maybe this company paying AMD is actually indirectly making intel work harder, because that means AMD will (hopefully) come up with a better product.

 

$12.6m isn't really a huge sum of cash but you can bet the employees at the research dept at AMD will be opening a bottle of bubbly tonight.

 

The DoE really has no right giving any money away considering this country is 16 trillion in debt.