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IBM executives mark the company's sixtieth anniversary by noting the firm's future may well be determined more by information technology (IT) processes than with machines. In 1945, IBM provided mechanical devices such as typewriters and liquid-spirit copiers. However, the next few years would see the U.S. development of transistors and integrated circuits, to which IBM researchers contributed fundamental work on magnetic data storage, solid-state data storage devices, and dynamic random-access memory. As of 2005, the worldwide IT market is approximately $1.2 trillion, and this sector will be driven less by physical products such as cell phones and weapons systems than intangibles such as intellectual property and software made available over the Internet. IBM's 2400 engineers and scientists are constantly exploring all levels of innovation. One recent project is the Blue Gene supercomputer, demonstrating a sustained performance of 136.8 teraflops. Blue Gene began as an exercise in a total-systems approach to the basic scaling of computer architecture. Greater power efficiency, intelligent system design, and more cost-effectiveness while producing high performance were the goals here. Spin-offs from this project could include content management, digital media games, life and medical sciences, and financial risk analysis; the key is an open-ended approach.
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Information Sources, Inc.
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