The corporation originated from a conglomerate of companies that produced tabulators and chronometers that formed before the First World War. Gradually, it became an international technological colossus, a pioneer in the development of electronic computers, and then, in the era of mainframes, an absolute monopolist. Until the 70s, the corporation was headed by the icons of American capitalism, Thomas Watson Sr. and Thomas Watson Jr.
Structure
As of January 2016, the following divisions operate within IBM:
- Global Technology Services
- Software
- Systems and Technology
- Global Financing
Compared to the beginning of 2015, the company's structure has not changed.
IBM in Russia and CIS countries
Since 2006, an IBM development center has been operating in Russia.
Assets
Data centers
As of the end of 2014, the number of IBM data centers serving cloud infrastructure is 49.
Performance indicators
2019: Fall in revenue from $79.6 billion to $77.15 billion
Acquisitions of companies and sales of assets
Working and managing people at IBM
Research and development
2018: Leadership in patents 26 years
At the beginning of 2019, patent research company IFI Claims Patent Services published its annual ranking of the largest patent recipients. IBM has been leading for 26 years in a row. Next came Samsung, Canon, Intel and LG Electronics - the same top five as in 2017.
According to data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in 2018 IBM received 9,100 patents, of which almost half are related to the most discussed technologies in the IT market, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing , information security, blockchain and quantum computing. Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and CEO IBM Ginni Rometty said these inventions demonstrate the company's commitment to "solving problems that many haven't even thought about yet."
Among the patents issued by IBM in 2018 are solutions aimed at improving communication between AI and humans (Project Debater); improving the quality of control of aquatic ecosystems to protect marine flora and fauna; systems for combating voice phishing schemes. Hybrid Cloud Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research Arvind Krishna said in an IBM blog post that climate change mitigation was a major focus in 2018.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a total of 308,853 patents in 2018, down 3.5% from 2017, according to IFI Claims Patent Services. Chinese companies increased the total number of patents issued by 12% compared to 2017. Bloomberg notes that the steady increase in the number of patents issued to Chinese companies reflects the intensification of their development of their own technologies.
With 9,100 patents, IBM had 6.4% of the total number of patents issued to companies in the US. New patents were issued to more than 8,500 IBM inventors in 47 different states and 48 countries.
A noticeable decrease was shown by Sony (15th place in the ranking, a decrease in the number of patents received by 21% compared to 2017), Google (11th place, minus 16%) and Qualcomm (8th place, minus 12%). Facebook, which entered the top 50 for the first time in 2017, dropped out of the shortlist altogether.
2016: Leadership in the number of new patents
In January 2017, it became known that IBM had maintained its leadership in the number of new patents for 25 years in a row. This was reported by the research agency IFI Claims Patent Services.
In 2017, IBM registered more than 9 thousand patents, while Samsung Electronics followed - 5.8 thousand. Canon entered the top three (3.3 thousand patents).
According to IFI Claims Patent Services, in 2017 the American patent office issued over 320 thousand patents, which is 5.2% more than the year before. Over the previous 10 years, the number of registered patents in the country has doubled, Bloomberg notes.
Although patents are registered in other countries, the United States is the absolute world leader in this regard. All major international corporations strive to patent their developments here.
In 2017, the majority of IBM's inventions were in artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, cloud technologies, cybersecurity, and other strategically important areas. For example, AI accounted for more than 1,400 patents. Some of them describe human speech analysis and machine learning technologies for self-driving cars.
From 2012 to 2017, IBM received more than 5,600 AI-related patents, which is 1 thousand documents more than Google.
2015
7,355 US patents
IBM's 2013 patent portfolio includes a variety of inventions that will help the company maintain its leadership position in areas such as cognitive technologies, cloud computing and analytics. These inventions will also enable a new phase of cognitive development, in which computers will be able to learn, make inferences, and interact with us in a more natural, personalized manner.
The number of patents IBM received in 2013 exceeded the total number of patents received by Amazon, Google, EMC, Intel, Oracle/SUN and Symantec. More than 8,000 IBM inventors in 47 U.S. states and 41 other countries contributed to a record 2013 patent portfolio.
The list of the top ten patent recipients* in the United States in 2013 is as follows: which allowed the corporation to lead the world list of companies with the most active inventive activity for the 18th year in a row.
Another patent describes a system for predicting conditions traffic based on the analysis of information exchanged through short-range wireless communication channels. It is expected that this invention will help alert drivers about emergency road conditions.
Also in 2010, the company patented a method for collecting and analyzing data from sensors in computer hard drives for high-precision analysis of seismic phenomena, in particular earthquakes, which can improve the speed and efficiency of emergency response in cases of natural disasters.
One of the patents that IBM notes as one of the most interesting was obtained by a native of Russia, Yuri Vlasov, who in the 1990s worked at the A.F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg, and since 2001 has been an employee of the IBM TJ laboratory Watson Research Center, located in New York State, USA.
The patent, obtained by Vlasov together with Solomon Assefa, Walter Bedell and Fengnian Xia, describes a technology that allows computer chips to communicate using light pulses instead of electrical signals, which can improve the performance of computing systems .
In total, more than 7 thousand IBM inventors from 46 different US states and 29 countries contributed to obtaining patents. IBM's non-US inventors contributed more than 22% of the company's total patent portfolio in 2010, up 27% over the past 3 years.
“Patents, like the inventions they represent, reflect the steadfast commitment to innovation that distinguishes IBM and its people,” said Kevin Reardon, IBM general manager of intellectual property and vice president of research development for the company. “Patent leadership is an important element of our strategy, which is focused on building a technology-enabled, connected and intelligent infrastructure that can transform the way diverse systems work to support a smart planet.”»IBM Watson Hitachi (a Hitachi Global Storage Technologies company).
- Soviet EC computers were directly and creatively copied from IBM/360 computers;
- ES PCs are analogues of IBM personal computers;
- ES computer operating systems were at least compatible with the corresponding IBM operating systems.
The most important achievement of the 20th century is the creation of the personal computer IBM PC, which had a huge impact on the development of the computer industry. This event not only became the starting point in the creation of personal computers, but also significantly affected the fate of Microsoft. The deal concluded between IBM and Microsoft turned the latter from an ordinary company into a giant of the computer industry, and Bill Gates into the richest man on the planet.
In this article we will talk about the interesting details of this transaction, which have not yet been widely publicized.
Quite a lot of articles are devoted to IBM and Microsoft companies, both in printed publications, and on various Internet resources. It would seem that what new can be said about them? After all, there are no blank spots in the history of these companies... or almost none? However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and, in order to be completely consistent, we will briefly outline the history of these companies. Paying tribute to historical justice, we, of course, will begin the story with IBM, which is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) companies in the computer market.
IBM Company
The history of IBM (International Business Machines) dates back to the beginning of the last century. Currently, the American company IBM is one of the world's largest corporations engaged in the production of servers and software, as well as research and development in various fields of science. The company's headquarters are located in Armonk, New York.
Of course, a short article is not enough to fully describe the history of IBM, so we will not go into chronological details, but will only try to give a general idea of it.
The company was officially founded in 1911, but received its modern name only in 1924. However, if we talk not about the date of registration of the company, but about its history, then it is worth starting with the invention of an electric machine for processing data using perforated cards by Herman Hollerith. Herman Hollerith was an employee of the US Census Bureau and proposed to automate the statistical recording of immigrants using punched cards processed on electromechanical counting and punching machines. Subsequently, Hollerith's paper punched cards served as the basis for data storage systems and were actively used until the 50s of the 20th century.
The electromechanical tabulating and punching machine invented by Hollerith was so successful that in 1896 he was able to create a company called the Tabulating Machine Co.
Fifteen years later, in 1911, financier Charles Flint merged the Tabulating Machine Co., which by that time was on the verge of bankruptcy, with two of his companies. As a result, on June 15, 1911, a company called Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR) was registered in New York, which was later renamed IBM.
In 1914 general manager CTR became Thomas J. Watson, Sr., who successfully led the company for almost 40 years.
The CTR company specialized in the production of tabulators and other counting and punching machines, and by 1919 its turnover reached $2 million.
The production of counting and punching machines remained the company's main activity until 1952, when Thomas Watson Jr. took over as president of the company. It was then that IBM began to work closely on the development and production of computers.
Omitting some facts from the history of IBM, let's go straight to 1980, when events occurred that significantly influenced its future fate.
By 1980, IBM was the largest computer company: it owned virtually half of all profits in the world computer market, and the number of employees was 425 thousand. However, American companies competing with IBM had already begun to produce and sell small home computers, which were called microcomputers. It is reliably known that by 1980 at least 200 thousand such devices were sold in the USA. And this new direction developed without the participation of the market leader - IBM. One should not assume that its leadership sat idly by and indifferently watched the situation develop. As Paul Carrol, author of Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM, recalls, IBM made two or three serious attempts to build a microcomputer, but all were unsuccessful.
And so a group of engineers from IBM's Special Projects Department in Boca Reton (Florida) told IBM management that they had found a solution. Until then, IBM had always produced all its own components for its computers. Engineers decided to change this strategy and proposed to produce computers using individual components other manufacturers. Administrator Bill Lowe promoted this idea.
“For the first time, we recommended that IBM management change their policy and start using it in their products. software and third-party components,” recalls Bill Lowe. IBM management hesitated for a long time before making a final decision. And in order to test how viable this idea was, an initiative group led by Bill Lowe was tasked with preparing to develop a microcomputer. Special Projects Department Administrator Jack Sams collected all the components needed to create it. This is how he recalls the events of that time: “I remember the first meeting was scheduled for Sunday. There were 13 of us, and we were told that the preparation of a program for creating and testing new system we are given 30 days.”
However, here we will interrupt the narrative in order to talk about the Microsoft company, since it is with it that we are associated further history IBM.
Microsoft Company
The history of Microsoft Corporation, of course, is shorter than that of IBM - it begins on April 4, 1975. It was then that childhood friends Paul Allen and Bill Gates registered a software development company in Albuquerque (New Mexico), which they named Microsoft.
Bill Gates, then a 20-year-old young man, dropped out of college to seriously take up programming and work in his own company. While still in college, he made a living by programming. In addition, Gates turned out to be a talented and quite adventurous entrepreneur. This is how Stefan Maines, author of a biography of Gates, speaks of him “flatteringly”: “He hired teenagers to work for him and sold their work, paying them a pittance and charging exorbitant prices from clients.”
Even before the formation of Microsoft, Gates and Alain created the Basic programming language, the rights to use which were sold to MITS, the first to develop the personal computer - Altair.
In 1977, Microsoft released its first product - the Fortran programming language for running on the CP/M operating system. In April 1978, the company created the Cobol-80 programming language to work with the 8080, 8085 and Z-80 microprocessors, and already in October of the same year, the rights to use and license for Basic were purchased from Microsoft Apple and Radio Shack.
The company became widely known on April 4, 1978, having received a million dollar prize for developing the Basic language, which became the first programming language. high level for 16-bit processors.
By 1980, Microsoft had 30 employees, including sales director Mark Ursino.
“I have always admired Bill Gates's ability to talk about literally everything. He was an excellent conversationalist, and you always felt that he was listening to you carefully. He analyzed your words and evaluated you to see if you could bring value to his company,” recalls Mark Ursino.
Another Microsoft employee was 35-year-old Bob O'Reir, who previously worked as a computer engineer at NASA. Although he was 10 years older than his colleagues and had academic degrees in mathematics and astrophysics, he quickly got used to the democratic environment at Microsoft.
“We went to work in whatever we wanted. The clothes were loose - Bermuda pants or a tracksuit. The atmosphere in the company was relaxed, like a bachelor's fraternity,” recalls Bob O’Reir.
Microsoft's office was located in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, and occupied a small room in a bank building, and the atmosphere that reigned in the company was completely contrary to the image of business America: the accountant worked barefoot, receipts were kept in a shoebox.
Deal between IBM and Microsoft
Bill Lowe, who led IBM's personal computer initiative, assigned Jack Sams to contact Microsoft. History is silent about why this particular company was chosen, but the fact remains: it was Microsoft that came to the attention of IBM. Jack Sams's task was to find two programs: a programming language and an operating system for the future PC.
On July 21, 1980, the morning after receiving the assignment, Jack Sams called Bill Gates and arranged a meeting. This phone call became a key moment in US business. IBM by that time had an annual income of $26 billion. Net profit was $3.6 billion. Microsoft at that moment had practically nothing.
On July 22, Jack Sams arrived with other IBM representatives at the 10800 block of 8th and 108th Streets in Bellevue. They went up to the eighth floor and went into office number 819, where Microsoft was located, and asked Bill Gates.
“A young man who looked like a courier came out of the back room and said, 'Come in here.' “When I entered the office, I asked if I could see Bill Gates,” recalls Jack Sams, “and only then did I realize that it was not the courier, but Bill Gates himself.”
Sams's task was to form an opinion about Gates and Microsoft, but at the same time, if possible, not talk about IBM's plans.
“During the conversation, Gates was very tense and focused. He didn’t even care about his tie being askew,” this is how Jack Sams comments on their first meeting.
Sams refrained from discussing the details of the project, but realized that Microsoft could provide both the programming language and the operating system.
“Now all we had to do was go back and convince the company's management to make a deal with Microsoft,” recalls Jack Sams.
On August 6, 1980, on the recommendation of Sams, Bill Lowe presented to IBM management the idea of creating a microcomputer based on third-party components and software from Microsoft. Not everyone in the company's management supported this idea, but... Frank Carey, Chairman of the Board of Directors, liked it. He gave Bill Lowe free reign. Lowe and Sams were given a year to build the microcomputer, test it, and bring it to market.
The successful execution of the work by Lowe's department promised IBM the conquest of key positions in the new sales market and the receipt of billions in profits. However, no one at IBM suspected that Gates' team was unable to fulfill the order - the new operating system that was expected from Microsoft simply did not exist.
A month after his first visit to the fledgling computer company, Jack Sams visited Bellevue again. On August 21, 1980, he arrived for a meeting with Gates and his staff.
Sams explained in detail what IBM was going to produce and what the hardware of a personal computer would look like. He wanted to purchase two products from Microsoft: a programming language and an operating system. Gates said that IBM could get the Basic programming language from Microsoft and there would be no problem with that. However, serious difficulties arose with the operating system. “There is only one company,” Gates explained, “that can do this. And this company is not Microsoft." Gates was confident that only Digital Research could develop the operating system IBM needed.
Digital Research had a pretty good operating system designed to work with 8-bit processors, and all that was required was to convert it to a 16-bit processor.
Gates immediately called Gary Kildell, head of Digital Research, and set up a meeting with Jack Sams the next day.
“When the IBM people left, Bill was beside himself. We knew that a deal like this with IBM, if it went through, would completely change the face of our company,” recalls Microsoft sales director Mark Ursino.
On August 22, 1980, Jack Sams arrived in California to meet with Gary Kildell. However, negotiations with the owner of Digital Research were unsuccessful. Gary Kildell refused to sign a unilateral secrecy agreement regarding the IBM project. IBM representatives insisted that they could disclose information obtained from Digital Research, but not vice versa. As a result, the deal between IBM and Digital Research did not take place. Sams, in desperation, called Bill Gates and said that they could not reach an agreement with Digital Research, and also said that they would have to terminate the deal if Gates did not get the operating system, since a computer without an operating system was worth nothing.
Two weeks later, Gates's companion Paul Allan found a way out. Half an hour's drive from the Microsoft office, in the suburb of Tukwila, with a store owner computer equipment Seattle Computer was a rather crude, home-grown operating system. The store was owned by amateur programmer Rod Brock.
“The company was supported by two technicians - me and Tim Patterson. Tim and I tried to act like business people, but they were just techies,” recalls Rod Brock.
25-year-old programmer Tim Patterson created the operating system in just four months and called it the Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS).
The QDOS system was only suitable as a rough draft for a future IBM operating system. It required significant changes, but the finished kernel saved many months of work. Tim Patterson was invited from the same Seattle Computer to fine-tune the operating system.
On September 22, 1980, Paul Allan called Rod Brock and offered to sell him a license for QDOS, to which he agreed, setting a price of $10,000. Gates contacted IBM and offered a choice of two options: either he buys a license for QDOS himself, or IBM does it. IBM preferred that Microsoft do this.
The next step was the preparation of the official IBM proposal - the largest of its kind. business proposals, received throughout the history of Microsoft. Everything had to be prepared a week before the meeting in Florida.
On the evening of September 29, 1980, on the eve of the official proposal, Bill Gates, company director Steve Ballmer and chief programmer Bob O'Reir were working on documents.
“We finished writing the proposal, took it out of the printer, put it in a folder and hurried to the airport,” Bob O’Reir recalls.
Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Bob O'Reir were the last passengers to board the overnight flight to Miami. On September 30, 1980 at 7 a.m. they flew to Miami. The meeting was scheduled for 10 o'clock. It was three hours away.
As it turned out upon arrival, Gates didn’t even have a tie, which was absolutely necessary for the business meeting (and later it turned out that he didn’t even know how to tie it). Before visiting IBM, it was decided to go to shopping mall and dress Gates appropriately. But, as luck would have it, the shopping center opened at exactly 10 o’clock, so Gates and his companions arrived 20 minutes late for the meeting with IBM representatives.
The meeting with IBM representatives took place in Boka Raton. IBM presented new requirements for the work schedule, so the discussion of Microsoft's proposal had to be postponed to the next day.
Finally, on October 1, Gates was ready to close the deal. Jack Sams, who treated Gates well, took him aside and whispered: “Don’t be shy, ask for more. We know it's expensive, and it should be expensive. If you want a million dollars, we will give you a million."
But... Bill didn't need a million dollars. Gates surprised IBM with his offer: he asked for only 400 thousand for a license for the Basic computer language and was ready to include QDOS for free, but subject to the following conditions: he was paid one dollar for each computer sold by IBM, and was given the opportunity to sell his software to other computer manufacturers. IBM agreed to these terms, thereby making the biggest strategic mistake in its history. IBM was skeptical about the personal computer market, naively believing that it would never become widespread, and therefore considered Mcirosoft’s conditions to be quite acceptable.
After two days of negotiations, Gates left Boca Reton, having entered into a verbal agreement with IBM. This deal was very cheap for IBM, and Gates, having agreed to the opportunity to sell software to other companies, actually received a machine for printing money.
However, Gates missed something: he did not have time to conclude an agreement with Seattle Computer to use the QDOS operating system, and therefore sold IBM a product that did not belong to him. But Rod Brock from Seattle Computer could have refused the verbal agreement with Microsoft.
On November 10, Paul Allan was assigned to close the deal with Rod Brock of Seattle Computer. According to the oral agreement, Brock was entitled a certain amount whenever Gates enters into a new agreement to produce computers based on QDOS. Microsoft agreed to pay Seattle Computer $10,000 for each new contract. At the same time, Brock naively believed that Microsoft would be able to sell the system to at least a dozen companies. But Microsoft had only one client - IBM, which Rod Brock didn't even know about.
Before the deal was finalized, Gates unexpectedly decided to make changes to the contract with Seattle Computer. According to the preliminary agreement, Gates had a non-exclusive agreement to license the QDOS operating system. Now he wanted to be the only seller of QDOS, citing the fact that exclusive rights to use QDOS would allow Microsoft to increase sales. Within two weeks, Gates and his lawyers prepared a new version of the contract for the transfer of the license for the QDOS operating system.
On July 10, 1981, a version of the agreement was sent to Seattle Computer, which included the following paragraph: “Microsoft becomes the sole owner of QDOS.”
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met with Rod Brock to finalize the deal, and he began to persuade Brock that the sale of QDOS would be beneficial to Seattle Computer, since it would be able to sell computers with an improved QDOS operating system and receive all future improvements for free. Even more tempting was the financial part of the offer. Having signed the agreement, Brock received $50 thousand from Microsoft. Needing money, on July 27, 1981, Brock agreed to Microsoft's terms and signed the agreement. Now the rights to the QDOS system belonged entirely to Microsoft.
While Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were settling things with Seattle Computer, programmers under Bob O'Reir continued to make changes to the QDOS operating system to make it compatible with the IBM computer. The new, improved operating system was called MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System).
On August 12, 1981, two weeks after signing the contract for QDOS, IBM released its first personal computer. When designing it, the principle of open architecture was applied: the components were universal, which made it possible to upgrade the computer in parts. The IBM PC used developments from other companies, for example the i8088 microprocessor from Intel Corporation.
The official presentation of the IBM PC took place on September 12, 1981 in New York, its announced base price was $1,565. No one knew what would come of it.
Sales began in October 1981, and by the end of the year more than 35 thousand cars were sold. However, the market demanded more and more. Five years later, PC production reached 3 million units. Competitors copied IBM's computer designs and began producing their own PC models. Because Bill Gates could sell his software without restrictions, IBM's competitors bought both the MS-DOS operating system and the Basic programming language, making Gates a millionaire almost overnight.
Nobody expected such a demand for personal computers, so IBM did not think in time to secure full rights to the MS-DOS operating system. As a result, today the market value of IBM, which could own the entire computer market, is half that of Microsoft, which, with the rights to the operating system, has grown from a small company into a global corporation worth more than $200 billion.
IBM is one of the largest manufacturers of electronics, computer equipment and software, widely known in the world. The company's history goes back more than 100 years and all these years it has been at the forefront of technological progress.
Many people know about the production of computers and competition with the Apple corporation, but IBM’s achievements include many scientific discoveries and implementations in daily life inventions. Five Nobel Prizes in physics have been awarded for developments and discoveries made in IBM laboratories. This material will tell the story of the founding and formation of the famous corporation, its revolutionary inventions, prospects and much more, which will be very interesting to those who are familiar with IBM.
The corporation was founded in 1896 by Herman Hollerith, an outstanding American engineer and inventor, who came from a family of German migrants. While working as a statistician for the US Census Bureau, he designed and patented a machine that could work with punched cards, reading and analyzing the information on them - a tabulator.
The results of the implementation of such an invention were impressive: data that previously took 8 years to process and analyze was now processed in 1 year. Within just a few years, the electric tabulation system began to be used when conducting population censuses in Canada, France, Italy, and Austria. Realizing the potential of his invention, in 1896 Hollerith founded the TMC (Tabulating Machine Company), engaged in the development, production and sales of tabulators.
Counting equipment is a good choice
In 1911, TMC became part of a conglomerate that included three other companies that produced scales, mechanical knives for cutting food, punchers for marking punched cards, and time clocks - devices that were used to mark the arrival and departure of workers in factories. The company was named CTR (Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation). Its first leader was businessman Charles Ranlett Flint, who bought TMS for 2.3 million US dollars, of which Hollerith received 1.2 million.
Three years later, in 1914, Flint decided to hand over the reins of the conglomerate to Thomas Watson, who had previously worked at the National Cash Register Company and was involved in cash registers. After a change in senior management, CTR began to focus exclusively on the production of business products, in particular, the production of large tabulating machines. Then he was chosen The main slogan of the company is the word “Think”, and Thomas Watson remained head of the company for 42 years. The strategy he chose allowed him to double the company’s turnover in just 4 years and reach $9 million, and by 1920 it had grown to $14 million.
Entering global markets
Simultaneously with the development of CTR, the list of its clients gradually expanded, among which were representatives of various areas of medium and big business. Over time, the company entered the markets of Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. There was a need to reflect the new stage of development and position of the company in international markets, so in 1924 the company's management decided to rename the company IBM - International Business Machines Corporation.
While during the Great Depression many companies were forced to lay off their employees or close their businesses altogether, IBM not only continued to grow steadily, but also came up with new social initiatives for its employees. In addition, during this difficult period, it was possible to obtain a large government order for the processing of statistical data and population information using tabulators for the new social insurance system.
New history - new achievements
By the beginning of the 40s, the company's annual profit reached $38 million, representative offices of the corporation were opened in 79 countries, and the number of employees was more than 11,000 people. Gradually, IBM turned into a real industrial empire, developing and producing calculating and electric writing machines. Not long before this, the company's first engineering laboratory was opened, and already in 1944 one of the first computers, the Mark-1, was created, developed jointly with scientists from Harvard University.
Just two years later, IBM introduced the first commercial computer model - the IBM 603 Multiplier; in 1948, a selection-sequential computer capable of changing recorded programs appeared. In 1955, the basic technology of computer memory was created, which was used for the next 20 years, and a year later - the first computer program for playing chess based on artificial intelligence technologies.
This was a powerful breakthrough in the development of the company; by the end of the 50s, the company's turnover had crossed the $1 billion mark, and almost 90% of the computers used in Europe were produced under the IBM brand.
At the same time, there was a change in the company's management and Thomas Watson Jr. became the president of the corporation until 1970, who would serve on the board of directors until 1984.
You can watch the historical stages of IBM's development in the video.
The beginning of the era of personal computers
In the early 70s, IBM released a line of machines using “virtual memory” technology - System/370. At the same time, the company's researchers introduced the concept of relational databases. All this made it possible to increase the corporation's income to $7.5 billion per year, and the company already employed 270 thousand employees.
In 1981, IBM introduced the personal computer, which had one feature: Other companies also took part in its development and creation. Intel made processors, and then again little-known Microsoft, which at that time had only 32 employees, developed an operating system called DOS. IBM did not file patents for its new PCs, which subsequently became the reason that competing firms began to produce “clones” of the IBM PC and undermined the corporation’s position in the market.
Way out of the crisis
Supercomputer from IBM, Photo: pixabayAfter the company lost the battle for the personal computer market in the 90s, IBM management (at that time the president of the corporation was Louis Gerstner) decided to leave the “user” segment of the market and focus on scientific developments and the business segment. Therefore, the division involved in the production of laptops was sold (it was acquired by the Chinese company Lenovo), and in return a consulting division was purchased, which over time turned into profitable business. This decision ultimately turned out to be a very far-sighted act, which allowed the company not to depend on the production and sales of personal computers, which soon turned into electronic consumer goods.
Another niche that IBM quite successfully occupied in its new conditions was the development and production of super-powerful computers for scientific laboratories and research centers.
IBM in Russia
IBM came to Russia back in 1974, when the company's first office was opened in the USSR, which at that time employed only 3 people. In 2006, the IBM scientific and technical laboratory was opened in Moscow, which very quickly became part of the company's scientific network around the world. In Russia, the laboratory's work is aimed at developing innovative solutions and complex knowledge-intensive projects for key sectors of the Russian economy, as well as work in the field of applied and systems programming.
IBM - everything is just beginning
Today the company is headed by Virginia Rometty, who began working at IBM more than 30 years ago as a systems engineer. The company remains the leader in the production of computer servers, which are used by 95% of firms in the world, and continues to lead the ranking of the largest, most profitable and expensive American companies. The company employs 3,000 doctors of science, the corporation owns 12 full-size research centers and holds the record for the number of patents received.
Correctly chosen strategies, the ability to analyze and master the situation, the ability to timely identify new directions and refocus on them allowed IBM to become one of the few companies that not only managed to survive historical shocks and financial crises, but also maintain their position in the market.
A video from the company’s official page will help you understand what IBM is today.
IBM (IBM, International Business Machines) is an American electronics corporation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of all types of computers and software, and providers of global information networks. The corporate headquarters is located in Armonk, New York. It is often called the "Blue Giant".
The company was founded in 1911 and received its current name in 1924. Since the mid-1950s, IBM has taken a leading position in the global computer market. In 1981, the company created its first personal computer, which became the industry standard. By the mid-1980s, IBM controlled about 60% of the world's production of electronic computers.
IBM has been a leader in the development and implementation of innovative business solutions for more than 90 years. Leveraging its own resources and those of business partners in 170 countries, IBM offers a suite of services, solutions and technologies that enable organizations of all sizes to take full advantage of new era e-business.
Creation of IBM
The company's history dates back to the late 19th century, when German immigrant Hermann Hollerith, who worked for the American Census Bureau, proposed automating the statistical counting of immigrants using punched cards. The electric data processing machine he invented turned out to be a successful model, and in 1896 Hollerith founded a company called Tabulating Machine Co.
On June 15, 1911, this company was merged with two other firms specializing in the automation of statistical data processing. The combined company became Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR). She managed to conquer her sector of the market and after some time her branches opened in Washington, Detroit, Toronto and Dayton.
In 1914, Thomas Watson Sr. became the general manager of CTR, whose name is associated with the main achievements of the company in the 1920s...1940s. By 1919, the company's turnover had doubled and reached $2 million. As CTR machines were sold in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, CTR was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924.
The Great Depression of the 1930s also caused significant damage to IBM. Despite the decline in production, Watson continued to finance scientific developments and paid for forced vacations for employees. As a result, by 1935, when the US government needed automated employment accounting systems for 26 million people, IBM was ready to fulfill this order as soon as possible. Since that time, IBM has been constantly fulfilling orders for the supply of equipment for government agencies. Also in 1935, IBM engineers created the first electric typewriter.
The first electronic computers
During the Second World War, the corporation's production capacities were reoriented to fulfill defense orders. Nevertheless, it was in the laboratories of IBM, together with scientists at Harvard University (among them was Howard Aiken), that work was carried out on the creation of one of the first electronic computers - an Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. Such a machine was assembled in 1944 and was called “Mark-1”. This computer, which weighed more than five tons, despite its low speed, could carry out a rather complex sequence of mathematical calculations. In 1946, IBM offered the first commercial model of an electronic computer - the IBM 603 Multiplier.
In 1952, the IBM 701 electronic computer was released, using electron vacuum tubes. Unlike the electromechanical switches used in the Mark 1, the vacuum tubes in this machine were easily replaced in case of malfunction, and most importantly, they made it possible to increase the calculation speed to 17 thousand operations per second. Created in 1954 based on new technology The NORC computer entered service with the US naval artillery that same year. With its help, complex ballistic calculations were made, which made it possible to effectively control coastal artillery fire at extremely long distances. In 1957, IBM Corporation's annual turnover exceeded $1 billion.
When using electronic computers, the issue of storing initial data and calculation results became acute, and in 1957 the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) machine was created, a computer with a system for storing calculation results. RAMAC was widely used in commercial companies, and in 1960 it was used at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley (USA). Also in 1957, IBM engineers developed the Fortran programming language. In 1952, Watson Sr., who had been at the helm of the company for almost 40 years, gave way to his son Thomas Watson Jr.
With the advent of transistors, tube computers became obsolete. In 1959, IBM created its first all-transistor mainframe (large mainframe computer), the 7090, capable of performing 229 thousand operations per second. Such mainframes allowed the US Air Force to create an early warning system for attack ballistic missiles. In 1964, based on two 7090 mainframes, the American airline SABER first used automated system sales and booking of air tickets in 65 cities around the world.
IBM-compatible computers
In April 1964, the first six software-compatible models of the IBM System-360 family of integrated circuits were announced. They had a common set of peripheral and external storage devices, unified system standard data structures and instructions, differed from each other in the amount of memory used and performance. An interrupt system was introduced into the central processor, and memory was built on a block principle.
The first samples of computers of the IBM/360 family marked the beginning of the third generation of computers. They arrived to customers in the second half of 1965, and by 1970, 15 models had been developed, of which the smallest (IBM/360-20-10) was approximately 50 times cheaper and 100 times less productive than the smallest one. large IBM/360-95. The modular operating system OS/360 had layers designed for a wide variety of hardware configurations. The main developer of the OS/360 operating system, Fred Brooks, compared the importance of its appearance to the significance of the splitting of the atom and the launch of the satellite.
IBM management invested $5 billion over 4 years in the development of a family with a universal, scalable architecture - an amount exceeding the US government's expenditure on the Manhattan Project and unprecedented for a private company in the 1960s. This project completely changed industry standards, and indeed the entire computer industry, making the Blue Giant's position in the mainframe markets virtually invulnerable. The logical structure of System-360 served as the basis for the development in 1967 of the 4Pi family of on-board machines and almost a dozen systems strategic purpose. The most famous IBM on-board computers for spacecraft Gemini and Apollo, as well as mission control systems machines in Houston. In 1969...71, IBM computers supported the landing of American astronauts on the Moon; in 1973, IBM fulfilled a NASA order for the supply of computer equipment for the Soyuz-Apollo program. Subsequently, IBM took part in the space shuttle flight program.
Owners of System-360 could, if necessary, upgrade equipment and software in parts, which resulted in significant cost savings. By the end of the 1960s, IBM dominated the computer market, with sales of its products exceeding $3 billion.
In 1971, the company introduced the floppy disk, which became the standard for data storage. In 1973, when Frank Carey became president of IBM, computer production increased significantly and their service life increased. Also in 1973, IBM released a system for automatically reading product prices using a laser, intended for supermarkets, as well as the IBM 3614 computer, with the help of which bank clients began to carry out account transactions.
In 1980, IBM management made a revolutionary decision to create a personal computer. When designing it, the principle of open architecture was applied: its components were universal, which made it possible to upgrade the computer in parts. To reduce the cost of creating a personal computer, IBM used the developments of other companies as components for his brainchild, in particular, an Intel microprocessor and Microsoft software. The appearance of the IBM PC in 1981 created an avalanche-like demand for personal computers, which have now become tools for people in a variety of professions. Along with this, there has been a huge demand for software and computer peripherals. Hundreds of new companies emerged on this wave, occupying their niches in the computer market.
The Present and Future of IBM
Despite the enormous importance of the personal computer market, IBM's interests extend much wider. The corporation's traditionally strong position is in the production of mainframes. In 1995, IBM received a prestigious order from the American government to create the world's most powerful supercomputer for the Livermore Laboratory, a nuclear research center in the United States. In 1996...97, the brainchild of IBM, the chess computer Deep Blue, entered into single combat with world chess champion Garry Kasparov. IBM also produces its own microprocessors, and its OS/2 operating system is used in every third US bank.
IBM also holds a leading position in the design and production of servers. The IBM eServer iSeries 400 (AS/400) is the world's most popular business application server. Today, more than 700 thousand IBM iSeries 400 (AS/400) systems operate in 150 countries. The IBM iSeries 400 system has unique scalability capabilities. Low-end server models are designed for the needs of small companies and run on a single processor. Older, more powerful models are built on 64-bit technology. They can be expanded to 32 processors and serve large organizations.
Research by scientists in scientific laboratories IBM goes far beyond pure commercial interests and are important for all world science. In 1986, IBM employees G. Binnig and G. Rohrer were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the creation of a scanning tunnel microscope, and in 1987, IBM employees J.G. also became Nobel laureates in physics. Bednorz and K.A. Müller for the discovery of new superconducting materials. IBM ranks first among US companies in the number of patents received for inventions. In 1996, IBM patented 1,867 inventions. On Scientific research the corporation spends about $5 billion a year.
In 1993, the new chairman of the board of directors, Louis Gerstner, chose the creation of network computer and development of network technologies. The first example of such a computer appeared in 1996, and on December 31 of the same year, IBM, Mastercard and the Danish payment system announced the first transaction (payment) over the Internet using the SET protocol. IBM sees its immediate tasks as creating reliable systems for electronic business. IBM owns 95% of the ATM software market. Being the largest Internet service provider, the company serves more than 30 thousand. corporate clients in 850 cities in more than 100 countries.
IBM's total revenue in 2002 was $81.2 billion, net income - $3.6 billion, assets - $96.5 billion. Number of employees - 315,889, number of patents - 3,288.
Status: PartnerIBM is one of the world's largest manufacturers and suppliers of hardware and software, as well as IT services and consulting services.
The company was founded in 1911 and was originally called CTR (Computing Tabulating Recording). Today p represents todaymultinational corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York (USA).
In 1940 it became the manufacturer of the first large-scale computers in the United States. In the 1950s, it produced computers based on tubes and transistors; in 1981, it entered human history as the manufacturer of the IBM PC Personal Computer. In the 1990s, IBM's business increasingly showed a desire to shift its business towards the delivery of services, primarily consulting. . This was most clearly demonstrated in 2002, when the “blue giant” acquired the consulting division of the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers for $3.5 billion. Currently, this business, merged into the IBM Global Services division, is the most profitable in the IBM structure, generating more than half of the company’s income . Today the company produces server equipment, mainframes, supercomputers, data storage systems, software, and provides a range of consulting services.
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