IBM sets up mobile computing lab in Korea

28 Oct 2003 11:16

Big Blue has teamed up with the South Korean government to establish a ubiquitous computing lab

IBM will team with the government to set up a ubiquitous computing research facility in Korea.

Big Blue announced last Friday that the lab will be set up by December, with investment from Korea's Institute of Information Technology Assessment.

Together, IBM and the government will invest $16m (£9.43m) dollars over four years. IBM Korea is making the initial investment by securing the 2,600 square metre site for the lab.

The facility will research the emerging field of dashboard-embedded communication, called telematics, as well as embedded software and related technologies.

Lee Ho-soo, the lab's chief, said Korea's good mobile infrastructure will help the team look into open standards-based web portals for telematics users.

He said the lab will have 70 staff, including 25 scientists from IBM Korea and 10 from IBM's Watson Research Centres in the US.

"We will increase the size to over a hundred," he said.

Minister for Information and Communication Chin Dae-je said: "Successful research should eventually add value [of] twelve to fifteen times the cost. The Korea government will give full support to make it happen."

This new lab is the result of efforts the South Korean government has put into attracting R&D facilities. Intel in August announced it would set up a Korean research centre for digital home technology and wireless communications by the end of the year. The IBM Ubiquitous Computing Laboratory is the second lab set up under the scheme.

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,39117436,00.htm