What does Bell Labs do, and where does Bell Labs get funding?

It is a physics-based laboratory.

Bell Labs' annual funding comes directly from the business and is Bell Labs' own money. It's Alcatel-Lucent's money, which is stable and won't cut.

Bell Labs research funding is determined as a percentage of the company's annual marketing revenue. In 1984 and 1994, for example, the annual R&D expenditure was about 4.5% of sales. With the annual increase in sales, the expenses have also increased from 100 million dollars to 100 million dollars.

Since 1996, the ratio of annual R&D expenditure to Lucent Technology's annual sales revenue has exceeded 10, and even reached the year). Since the laboratory is funded by the company's annual sales revenue, the scientists and engineers in the laboratory do not have to travel to fight for project funding. As long as the content of the research is relevant to the needs of the company, managers generally respect the wishes and interests of scientists.

The Atlanta Optical Communications Application Experiment began in 1974, and Bell Labs began to design the Atlanta optical wave communication line early, and the installation was completed by the end of 1975. On January 13, 1976, scientists and engineers in the laboratory began experimenting with megabits of optical communication systems. After two years of preparation, the joint efforts of Bell Labs and the technicians of the Western Electric Company, the world's first application experiment of light wave communication was a complete success.

1.After 40 years of incubation in the mechanical and engineering departments of AT&T and Western Electric, the R&D policy has been changed and tempered many times, the R&D personnel have become rich in experience, and the allocation of R&D facilities and funds has found a reliable method, thus preparing a sound and reliable foundation for the great development of Bell Labs after its establishment.

2.The R&D mission has always been extremely clear and understood: focusing on the R&D of communication technologies and products, and radiating to other technologies and products. Awareness and understanding of the task evolve over time.

3.Determined to pursue the originality of research and development, and to develop molding technology and product development, should be the company always faced with advanced communication technology and products, so must and only from the original of basic research, in order to gain an advantage in the fierce competition of communication products, in order to improve the quality of human communication life.

4.Talented, good at selecting and cultivating outstanding scientific and technological talents.

5. Free research and team combination.

6 Innovation is the soul of Bell Labs.

7 A good academic environment in Bell Labs - the "Garden of Eden" for research.

8 Diagram of the double helix structure of basic research, technology development, product production and marketing.

9.Science, technology, production and marketing of short-range and opening and closing cycles.

10.Scientific spirit and team spirit and style.

11.Success is built by success.

12.Success stems from systems engineering formed by the various causes and elements mentioned above.

The work of Bell Labs can be broadly divided into three categories: basic research, systems engineering, and application development. In terms of basic research, he is mainly engaged in the basic theoretical research of telecommunication technology, including mathematics, physics, materials science, behavioral science and computer programming theory.

Systems engineering is the study of highly complex systems that make up telecommunications networks. The Development Department is the largest division of Bell Labs and is responsible for designing the equipment and software that make up the Bell Systems telecommunications network.

Bell Labs is one of the few R&D institutions in the industry. R in R&D refers to basic research, while D refers to development. The ratio of Bell Labs r to Li Zed is 1:

10。This is very different from Microsoft Research. Microsoft does pure technology research, while Bell Labs does both basic research and product development, as well as applied research after basic research.

There are three phases of research and development at Bell Labs: one is for Bell Labs to invent or innovate itself, and the other is to evolve and update its own products. The other is to absorb new technologies and new products through mergers and acquisitions in Europe and other regions.

If a large company only does development, it is a relatively short-term behavior, and in the long run, the technology is developing rapidly, although I can't say what will happen in ten years, but at least we must see it.

If there is no theoretical experience in basic research or directional knowledge, the plan in the next three or five years will be like water without a source. But you can't put the cart before the horse, you can't write ** all day long, and you can't get a product. If you can't produce products, you can't bring benefits, you can't generate profits, and you can't talk about research.

As a high-tech company, Lucent is fully aware of the need to invest in both basic research and product development, and has been using 11% and 12% of annual sales as R&D funds for Bell Laboratories, about $4 billion. Bell Labs currently has 28,000 people, of which less than 3,000 are doing basic research, and the rest are doing product development.

Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is exiting the basic, physical and semiconductor sciences to focus on areas that can get to market faster, such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless technology, nanotechnology and software. As a spokesperson for Bell Labs said, "In the new innovation model, research should be focused on addressing the needs of the parent company."