MIT, Quanta team on $20M computing project

MIT has teamed up with Quanta Computer Inc. on a five-year, $20 million joint research project designed to change the way people interact with technology.

Project TParty, announced on Friday, April 8, will address the complexity of today's computing landscape. Whereas people currently have to maintain a wide array of "smart" devices--from cell phones to computers to personal digital assistants--on their own, TParty is intended to move such work into the background, making such computing tasks as upgrades and backups more or less invisible to the user.

The work means creating the next generation of platforms for computing and communication. TParty will require reengineering and an extension of the underlying technical infrastructure, the creation of new interfaces and the exploration of new ways of managing and accessing information. (Via Science Blog)