5 ms·

Does anything remotely like Bell Labs exist today? Is it simply not possible with everyone tightening their belts? If you're unfamiliar with what came out of

Does anything remotely like Bell Labs exist today? Is it simply not possible with everyone tightening their belts? If you're unfamiliar with what came out of Bell Labs, check out this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_labs#Discoveries_and_developments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_labs#Discoveries_and_devel... Or is it the fate of software innovation that it is to be decentralized and happen in our spare time now?

kisielk 15y ago
Microsoft Research?
- manojlds 15y ago
  And it expands into many fields
  - amartya916 15y ago
    Absolutely. Just for the curious, though off-topic, here's a link to the various things MSR is involved with: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/areas.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/areas.aspx.
- ww520 15y ago
  MS Research is quite good. Done lots of fundamental research work.
  - basugasubaku 15y ago
    MSR may be the top organization in computer science today: http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7&topdomainid=2&subdomainid=0&last=5 http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7...
    - kisielk 15y ago
      Looks like IBM is quite far up there in terms of publications as well.
      - scott_s 15y ago
        We keep our selves busy.
eeeerrrr 15y ago
Bell Labs was a manufacturing line for science Nobel prizes. Google Labs was a project for showcasing Gmail bells and whistles. I guess it was kind of disingenuous for Google to call it "Labs" in the first place.
phlyingpenguin 15y ago
Xerox PARC, IBM Research, MS Research, Google Research (don't confuse Google Labs with research). There are plenty more.
- jackowayed 15y ago
  Isn't PARC pretty much a consultancy now?
  - dredmorbius 15y ago
    It's also independent of Xerox, though a wholly-own subsidiary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company)
ehsanu1 15y ago
The Viewpoints Research Institute fits the bill: http://www.vpri.org/ http://www.vpri.org/ They want to replace the entire software industry, since it's all a huge hack (especially the 100m+ SLOC codebases that are way too common). Goal: a full GUI system (from kernel to applications) in 20k SLOC. Take a look at the progress reports they've made. They claim a 200 line TCP, 800 line graphics system (apparently comparable to Cairo), and lots of other neat stuff.
- gmartres 15y ago
  > They claim a 200 line TCP, 800 line graphics system (apparently comparable to Cairo) That's impressive (and hard to believe). Are more informations about this available somewhere?
  - sur 15y ago
    There's a blog post about it here: http://www.moserware.com/2008/04/towards-moores-law-software-part-3-of-3.html http://www.moserware.com/2008/04/towards-moores-law-software...
Homunculiheaded 15y ago
I've always felt BBN [1] was pretty close, not the size of Bell labs, but tons of really awesome research. They've been purchased and sold many times (now with Raytheon) but they are the company behind the original arpanet and, despite many transitions, they've always seemed to preserve their culture (Leo Beranek, nearly 100 now, still stops by from time to time) and passion for research . [1] http://www.bbn.com/ http://www.bbn.com/
rwolf 15y ago
Woah woah woah, you seem to be confusing "small experiments Google hosts publicly at labs.google.com" with R&D. Since your wiki link seems to be about publishing academic articles, here's a list of academic article produced by places that are not Bell Labs: http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pu/publications.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pu/publications.aspx The software industry is also producing patents at an absurb rate, which is another byproduct of research (theoretically).
- machrider 15y ago
  Yeah, I guess it was a little off-topic. I realize they're different things, but shutting down Google Labs made me think of the state of R&D in general.

kisielk 15y ago

Microsoft Research?

manojlds 15y ago
And it expands into many fields
- amartya916 15y ago
  Absolutely. Just for the curious, though off-topic, here's a link to the various things MSR is involved with: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/areas.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/areas.aspx.
ww520 15y ago
MS Research is quite good. Done lots of fundamental research work.
- basugasubaku 15y ago
  MSR may be the top organization in computer science today: http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7&topdomainid=2&subdomainid=0&last=5 http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7...
  - kisielk 15y ago
    Looks like IBM is quite far up there in terms of publications as well.
    - scott_s 15y ago
      We keep our selves busy.

eeeerrrr 15y ago

Bell Labs was a manufacturing line for science Nobel prizes. Google Labs was a project for showcasing Gmail bells and whistles. I guess it was kind of disingenuous for Google to call it "Labs" in the first place.

phlyingpenguin 15y ago

Xerox PARC, IBM Research, MS Research, Google Research (don't confuse Google Labs with research). There are plenty more.

jackowayed 15y ago
Isn't PARC pretty much a consultancy now?
- dredmorbius 15y ago
  It's also independent of Xerox, though a wholly-own subsidiary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company)

ehsanu1 15y ago

The Viewpoints Research Institute fits the bill: http://www.vpri.org/ http://www.vpri.org/ They want to replace the entire software industry, since it's all a huge hack (especially the 100m+ SLOC codebases that are way too common). Goal: a full GUI system (from kernel to applications) in 20k SLOC. Take a look at the progress reports they've made. They claim a 200 line TCP, 800 line graphics system (apparently comparable to Cairo), and lots of other neat stuff.

gmartres 15y ago
> They claim a 200 line TCP, 800 line graphics system (apparently comparable to Cairo) That's impressive (and hard to believe). Are more informations about this available somewhere?
- sur 15y ago
  There's a blog post about it here: http://www.moserware.com/2008/04/towards-moores-law-software-part-3-of-3.html http://www.moserware.com/2008/04/towards-moores-law-software...

Homunculiheaded 15y ago

I've always felt BBN [1] was pretty close, not the size of Bell labs, but tons of really awesome research. They've been purchased and sold many times (now with Raytheon) but they are the company behind the original arpanet and, despite many transitions, they've always seemed to preserve their culture (Leo Beranek, nearly 100 now, still stops by from time to time) and passion for research . [1] http://www.bbn.com/ http://www.bbn.com/

rwolf 15y ago

Woah woah woah, you seem to be confusing "small experiments Google hosts publicly at labs.google.com" with R&D. Since your wiki link seems to be about publishing academic articles, here's a list of academic article produced by places that are not Bell Labs: http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pu/publications.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pu/publications.aspx The software industry is also producing patents at an absurb rate, which is another byproduct of research (theoretically).

machrider 15y ago
Yeah, I guess it was a little off-topic. I realize they're different things, but shutting down Google Labs made me think of the state of R&D in general.