Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco Systems, NASA and others have teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University to make software more reliable, secure and less buggy. Carnegie Mellon on Thursday launched the Sustainable Computing Consortium (SCC), which brings together academic researchers, government agencies, technology companies and businesses that use software. Funded with an initial $30 million, the group aims to create effective business practices for creating software--and tools that can test its dependability and security.

"Our standards have inappropriately been lowered by our daily experience," said Ken Jacobs, Oracle's vice president of product strategy. "We have to bring software engineering the kind of maturity we have in building bridges and buildings. We don't expect buildings to fall down every day." Organizers say research shows that defects in software cost businesses an estimated $175 billion last year in lost productivity. The software industry has wrestled with reliability problems for years. Software makers often put out patches to fix bugs and security holes after the release of its products.