The US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with Google to develop chips for researchers. Chips used by researchers in the development of new nanotechnology and semiconductor devices will be manufactured by Skywater Technology. The company that owns Alphabet will pay for the initial costs of building the product and provide a subsidy for the first product. The announcement came shortly after the US passed the CHIPS and SCIENCE Act, aimed at boosting semiconductor research and manufacturing in the country.
According to a Blog post Through NIST, the US government agency has contracted with Google to develop and manufacture chips that researchers can use to develop new nanotechnology and semiconductor devices.
NIST will design the circuitry for the chips with university research partners such as the University of Michigan, University of Maryland, George Washington University, Brown University and Carnegie Mellon University. The chips will be manufactured by Skywater Technology at a semiconductor foundry in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The search giant will bear the initial cost of setting up the product and subsidize the first product run.
“NIST expects to design as many as 40 different chips optimized for different applications. Because chip designs will be open source, researchers can pursue new ideas without restrictions and share data and device designs freely,” the Commerce Department said.
US President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to implement the 2022 CHIPS Act which provides $52.7 billion (roughly Rs. 4,21,000 crore) in subsidies to promote semiconductor manufacturing and research in the US. It is also expected to boost the country’s competitive efforts against China’s science and technology development.
