URBANA, Ill. (AP) A research center that will be based at the University of Illinois has been awarded $30 million over the next five years.  It’s called the SONIC center and will focus on building complicated systems out of next-generation circuit technology.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/Y9LbKj ) that the multidisciplinary center will involve researchers from seven other universities. They are Stanford, Michigan, Princeton, Carnegie-Mellon and the University of California campuses at
Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Barbara.

The SONIC center in Illinois is one of six new centers that will be part of the Semiconductor Research Corp.’s Focus Center Research Program, which gets under way Jan. 1.  About $12.5 million of the award money will go to the Illinois campus.

© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.