IBM: One Hundred Years of Great History. The story of a deal that changed the world of computing IBM Technologies

What is MOM

The state in which many domestic enterprises are located can be called the transition from "island" automation to the creation of unified information systems covering several various areas activities, and often interacting with information systems of other enterprises (business partners, suppliers of certain resources, etc.). This process is unlikely to be painless - often it will be accompanied by additional organizational processes related to the introduction of new technologies, such as the emergence or disappearance of jobs, changes in job responsibilities of employees, the need for their training, etc. One should not ignore such an important fact as fast development and changing technologies, as well as changing the business of the enterprises themselves. This often leads to the fact that the enterprise is forced to constantly upgrade one or another part of the operating information system.

In this situation, solving the problem of integrating existing applications, including those operating under various operating systems, becomes especially relevant. Application integration projects account for up to 30% of enterprise development spending, according to Forrester Research. information technologies.

There are many different ways to create distributed applications that run on different platforms, such as using COM or CORBA technologies, creating Web applications, and creating and using Web services to get the results of application execution. Promotion modern technologies involves in most cases the replacement of existing systems with new ones. At the same time, a Messaging Oriented Middleware (MOM) application integration approach means preserving and integrating existing systems, and therefore significant savings and savings on existing investments. Many computer industry analysts note the rapid growth in the number of solutions using the MOM due to the flexibility of this architecture. This kind of integration is implemented in the IBM MQSeries product family.

Message queuing tools are designed to store messages sent by applications and then deliver them to another application using a special server application - a queue manager. The queue manager writes the message to a local queue and then sends it over the network to another queue manager that contains the so-called destination queue for the destination application. The destination application accesses the destination queue and accesses the message. Thus, the message queuing system provides an asynchronous method of interaction between programs that does not require the establishment of a direct connection between them. This ensures that the transmitted message is neither lost nor received twice.

The tasks of data exchange between different applications arise quite often, and ten or twenty years ago, developers created their own data export and import modules to solve them. It was these modules that essentially were the predecessors of MOM. With the development of applied information systems, the need arose to create a universal infrastructure that provides such an exchange. This need was the reason for the creation of MOM.

In 1992, the Message Queue Interface (MQI) programming interface specification was published by IBM, and since that year there has been a family of products called the MQSeries. During the existence of these products, versions of queue managers have appeared for all popular server platforms, including OS/390, MVS, VSE/ESA, OS/400, OS/2, OpenVMS, Digital Unix, AIX, HP-UX, SunOS, Sun Solaris, SCO UNIX, UnixWare, AT&T GIS UNIX, DC/OSx, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95/98, and MQSeries client versions for more more platforms. Recently, tools have appeared for integrating MQSeries with relational DBMS, combining queue managers into clusters, and various programming interfaces that simplify the development of applications using MQSeries.

Currently, the IBM MQSeries product family (Figure 1) contains:

• MQSeries - a means of queuing messages and processing them;
• MQSeries Integrator - application integration tool;
• MQSeries Workflow - business process management tool;
• MQSeries Adapter - a tool for creating adapters, that is, transitional software between application systems and MQSeries;
• MQSeries.EveryPlace is a message queuing service for mobile devices and mobile users.

Below we will consider the purpose and main features of each of these products.

IBM MQ Series

IBM MQSeries, one of IBM's flagship products, is a tool for queuing and processing messages in a heterogeneous distributed environment that is independent of either the hardware platform or the operating system. The simplest scheme of IBM MQSeries operation is shown in fig. 2.

When a user sends a request to send a message to Application 1, MQSeries writes the message to a local queue for transmission to remote systems, and then sends it over the network to the remote destination queue. The destination program (application 2) reads the destination queue and accesses the message. Thus, user applications do not have to deal with internal structure queues and with means of communication between queue managers.

MQSeries messages are a data structure consisting of a message header, which contains information about the characteristics of the message intended for message managers (information about the sender and recipient, about the route of the message, about the queue to which the response should be delivered), and the transmitted data (if necessary, they can be converted from one format to another).

A message queue is a means of storing and processing messages. In order to increase the reliability of their transmission, messages can be logged.

Applications using MQSeries do not access them directly - message queues can only be accessed through several alternative application programming interfaces: MQI (Message Queue Interface), AMI (Application Message Interface), JMS (Java Message Service), CMI (Common Message Interface). This interface can be used with C, C++, Java, Smalltalk, Cobol, PL/1, Lotus LSX, Basic, as well as with the most popular development tools VisualAge, Delphi, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic.

Queue managers send messages using channels and a special MCP (Message Channel Protocol) that runs on top of lower-level transport protocols. The use of this protocol fully ensures the transmission of a message, including in the event of a system or network failure, since the message is removed from the queue only after it has been acknowledged by the addressee.

Note that MQSeries allows you to combine a group of operations for sending and receiving messages into a single transaction. In this case, until the completion of the transaction, the sent messages are invisible to other applications, and the received messages are not removed from the queues. If the transaction is rolled back, the queues are returned to the state corresponding to the moment it started. Therefore, MQSeries queue managers can play the role of distributed transaction monitors and participate in distributed transactions under the control of other transaction monitors.

MQSeries includes: a utility for administering and configuring queues, message channels, security - MQSeries Explorer, a component for testing application programming interfaces - MQSeries API Exerciser, as well as interfaces designed for embedding in other applications in order to add MQSeries administration capabilities. There are also third-party MQSeries administration utilities on the market.

In addition, MQSeries can be supplemented with message encryption tools, as well as other external modules, for example: MQSeries Link for SAP R/3 - for integrating R/3 with other applications or remote R/3 systems; MQ Enterprise Integrator, MQSeries LSX, MQSeries Link, MQSeries Extra Link - for messaging between Lotus Notes and other systems using MQSeries; MQSeries Internet Gateway - for converting HTTP requests to MQSeries messages and vice versa.

However, it should be noted that in addition to delivering a message, the task of recognizing and processing its content is also important. To solve it, the MQSeries Integrator product is used, to which the next section will be devoted.

IBM MQSeries Integrator

The IBM MQSeries Integrator is a message broker that processes and distributes message streams to applications, databases, and other recipients. It enables application integration by facilitating data exchange between applications running on different platforms.

MQSeries Integrator uses rules to implement enterprise-wide business intelligence and apply it to business events, and can dynamically process and route messages, such as adding data from corporate databases to transmitted information, storing information in corporate databases, converting data contained in messages from one format to another. Data can be transferred in the Publish/Subscribe mode, as well as converted to XML format and vice versa. Data formats can be stored in dictionaries, including those supplied by independent manufacturers.

The MQSeries Integrator product consists of a graphical environment for developing formats and procedures for processing message flows ControlCenter with a repository of message formats MessageRepository, from the Configuration Manager management server and from a distributed system of message processing servers Message Broker, which acts as an MQSeries message processor and router. When a message is received, the Message Broker processes it in one way or another (depending on the content of the message) according to the rules defined in the Message Broker configuration.

MQSeries Integrator contains tools for converting messages from one format to another, format descriptions, saving descriptions in the appropriate databases, recognizing message parts according to available formats. Format conversion can include adding or removing data, changing message headers, performing calculations, and performing user-defined functions. There are ready-made dictionaries of standard formats for MQSeries Integrator, for example, for SAP R/3 and S.W.I.F.T.

In addition to format conversion tools, MQSeries Integrator contains tools for creating and applying message distribution rules based on the values ​​of the fields contained in the message. A typical example of such a rule is sending a copy of the message to another recipient if the value of any field of the message is in a predetermined range (for example, if the transaction amount exceeded some value). Note that latest version MQSeries Integrator allows you to use third-party products as a means of implementing certain message distribution rules.

The tools described above can be accessed using the appropriate application programming interface or graphical administrative utilities (Figure 3).

To ensure data protection, the product includes a User Name Server, which is responsible for storing a list of users and user groups, as well as information about their rights to access data, messages, and operations.

IBM MQ Series Workflow

IBM MQSeries Workflow is a workflow management tool that enables you to manage business processes, data, applications, and even people across your entire enterprise, including managing relationships with external partners. This product is used to develop, improve, document and manage enterprise business processes. With this tool, you can document business processes, automate unmanaged activities, change processes as your business changes, send to-do lists to employees, and provide the right information about the execution of certain processes.

The MQSeries Workflow product consists of server and client components.

Server components include the following servers:

• execution server - responsible for the timely transfer of the desired position of the task to a specific employee. To achieve this goal, the server can start or stop processes, register events, store information about them in the database. You can use multiple copies of the execution server;
• administration server - manages other server components of MQSeries Workflow, is responsible for their availability, functioning and recovery after failures. The administration server is accessed using the MQSeries Workflow Administration Utility component;
• scheduling server - manages notifications for operations that must be completed within a certain period of time;
• server return resources to the system - responsible for the physical removal of copies of processes that have been completed;
• Application Execution Server - Calls server applications for execution, such as CICS and IMS transactions. It is currently available on the OS/390 platform.
• MQSeries Workflow client components include:
• BuildTime - with it you can create workflow models, for this purpose it includes a graphical editor for creating process models. In addition, this component can determine which personnel are involved in the process, which programs and data are used in the workflow. The created model can be saved or exported to a format convenient for documentation, and then converted into a template and transferred to the MQSeries Workflow server components (Fig. 4);
• MQSeries Workflow Client - used to launch processes to edit work lists, manage process copies, change job assignments, track process execution. Instead of a ready-made client application supplied with MQSeries Workflow, you can use those created on your own - there is an appropriate API for this. The Program Execution Agent is used to launch external applications used to perform operations;
• MQSeries Workflow Client for Lotus Notes - designed to use Lotus Notes as an external working environment for MQSeries Workflow without any adaptation. This component allows you to provide Notes users with access to all MQSeries Workflow features, and provides developers with an interface to embed Lotus Notes functionality (forms, documents) into a workflow solution;
• Administration Utility - is a utility for administering MQSeries Workflow server components.

IBM MQ Series Adapter

The IBM MQSeries Adapter is a tool for creating adapters, that is, transitional software between applications and MQSeries. The product consists of two components - MQSeries Adapter Builder and MQSeries Adapter Kernel, as well as two components for support - MQSeries Adapter Sets and MQSeries Integrator Library.

The MQSeries Adapter Builder makes it possible to import an application's interface into the repository by processing function prototypes of structure descriptions, allowing you to associate the data contained in the message with the data that the application should receive. This can be done either by reformatting the data or by using more complex transformations, such as evaluating functions. The output of the tool is C code that can be compiled on the platforms where the application will run.

The MQSeries Adapter Kernel is a runtime library accessed by adapters built with the Adapter Builder.

MQSeries Adapter Sets - a set of standard adapters for SAP R/3, Baan Ivb and JD Edwards OneWorld. These adapters can be modified if necessary.

The MQSeries Integrator Libraries allow MQSeries Integrator users to use it with adapters.

IBM MQSeries EveryPlace

IBM MQSeries EveryPlace is a message queuing service for mobile devices running Windows CE, Palm OS, mobile phones, as well as for mobile users with computers running Windows, supporting guaranteed delivery of information between portable devices and interaction with the standard infrastructure of MQSeries queue managers. This product is specially adapted for use on systems with minimal hardware resources and can be used on all platforms that support Java (Fig. 5).

Conclusion

In this article, we reviewed the features of the IBM MQSeries family of products. We talked about the features of MQSeries as a tool for queuing messages and processing them, as well as about a number of products created on its basis, namely: MQSeries Integrator - an application integration tool, MQSeries Workflow - a business process management tool, MQSeries Adapter - a tool for creating transitional software between applications and MQSeries, and MQSeries EveryPlace - a message queue service for mobile devices and mobile users. We are convinced that these products can serve as the basis for creating an enterprise information infrastructure or solutions that are part of such an infrastructure.

IBM is known to many today. She left a huge imprint in computer history and even today her pace in this difficult business has not slowed down. The most interesting thing is that not everyone knows what IBM is so famous for. Yes, everyone has heard about the IBM PC, about the fact that it made laptops, that it once seriously competed with Apple. However, among the merits of the blue giant is great amount scientific discoveries, as well as the introduction of various inventions into everyday life. Sometimes many people wonder where this or that technology came from. And all from there - from IBM. Five Nobel laureates in physics received their prizes for inventions made within the walls of this company.

This material is intended to shed light on the history of the formation and development of IBM. At the same time, we will talk about its key inventions, as well as future developments.

Formation time

IBM's origins date back to 1896, when, decades before the advent of the first electronic computers, the eminent engineer and statistician Herman Hollerith founded a company for the production of calculating machines, christened TMC (Tabulating Machine Company). Mr. Hollerith, a descendant of German emigrants who was openly proud of his roots, was prompted by the success of his first calculating and analytical machines. own production. The essence of the invention of the grandfather of the "blue giant" was that he developed an electrical switch that allows you to encode data in numbers. In this case, the information carriers were cards, in which holes were punched in a special order, after which the punched cards could be sorted mechanically. This development, patented by Herman Hollerith in 1889, made a splash, which allowed the 39-year-old inventor to receive an order for the supply of his unique machines for the US Department of Statistics, which was preparing for the 1890 census.

The success was astounding: it took only one year to process the collected data, as opposed to the eight years it took for statisticians from the US Census Bureau to obtain the results of the 1880 census. It was then that the advantage of computational mechanisms in solving such problems was demonstrated in practice, which largely predetermined the future "digital boom". Earned funds and established contacts helped Mr. Hollerith in 1896 to create the company TMC. At first, the company tried to produce commercial machines, but on the eve of the 1900 census, it changed its profile to the production of calculating machines for the US Census Bureau. However, three years later, when the state "trough" was covered, Herman Hollerith again turned his attention to the commercial application of his developments.

Although the company experienced a period of rapid growth, the health of its creator and mastermind was steadily deteriorating. This made him accept the offer of millionaire Charles Flint to buy TMC in 1911. The deal was valued at $2.3 million, of which Hollerith received $1.2 million. In fact, it was not about a simple purchase of shares, but about the merger of TMC with ITRC (International Time Recording Company) and CSC (Computing Scale Corporation), as a result of which the CTR corporation (Computing Tabulating Recording) was born. She became the prototype of modern IBM. And if many people call Herman Hollerith the grandfather of the "blue giant", then it is Charles Flint who is considered to be his father.

Mr. Flint was undeniably a financial genius with the ability to foresee strong corporate alliances, many of which have outlived their creator and continue to play a defining role in their fields. He took an active part in the creation of the Pan-American rubber manufacturer U. S. Rubber, one of the once leading global manufacturers of American Chicle chewing gum (since 2002, already called Adams, part of Cadbury Schweppes). For his success in consolidating US corporate power, he has been called the "Father of Trusts." However, for the same reason, the assessment of its role, in terms of positive or negative impact, but never in terms of significance, is highly ambiguous. Paradoxically, Charles Flint's organizational skills were highly valued in government departments, and he always found himself in places where ordinary officials could not act openly or their work was less effective. In particular, he is credited with participating in a secret project to buy up ships around the world and convert them into military vessels during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Created by Charles Flint in 1911, CTR Corporation produced a wide range of unique equipment, including time tracking systems, scales, automatic meat cutters, and, which turned out to be especially important for creating a computer, punched card equipment. In 1914 post CEO occupied by Thomas J. Watson Sr., and in 1915 he became president of the CTR.

The next major event in the history of CTR was the change of name to International Business Machines Co., Limited, or IBM for short. It happened in two stages. First, in 1917, the company entered the Canadian market under this brand. Apparently, by this she wanted to emphasize the fact that she is now a real international corporation. In 1924, the American division became known as IBM.

The Great Depression and World War II

The next 25 years in IBM's history were more or less stable. Even during the Great Depression in the United States, the company continued its activities at the same pace, with almost no layoffs, which could not be said about other firms.

During this period, several important events for IBM can be noted. In 1928, the company introduced a new type of punched card with 80 columns. It was called the IBM Card and has been used for the past few decades by the company's adding machines, and later by its computers. Another significant event for IBM at this time was a major government order to systematize job data for 26 million people. The company itself recalls it as "the biggest settlement transaction of all time." It also opened the door for the blue giant to other government orders, just like when TMC started.

Book "IBM and the Holocaust"

There are several references to IBM's collaboration with the fascist regime in Germany. The data source here is Edwin Black's book "IBM and the Holocaust" ("IBM and the Holocaust"). Its name clearly indicates the purpose for which the blue giant's calculating machines were used. They kept statistics on imprisoned Jews. Even the codes that were used to systematize the data are given: Code 8 - Jews, Code 11 - Gypsies, Code 001 - Auschwitz, Code 001 - Buchenwald, and so on.

However, according to the IBM management, the company only sold equipment to the Third Reich, and how it was used further does not concern them. So, by the way, did many American companies. IBM even opened a factory in Berlin in 1933, which is when Hitler came to power. However, there is also back side in the use of IBM equipment by the Nazis. After the defeat of Germany, thanks to the machines of the blue giant, it was possible to trace the fate of many people. Although this did not prevent various groups of people affected by the war and the Holocaust in particular from demanding an official apology from IBM. The company refused to bring them. Even despite the fact that during the war, its employees who remained in Germany continued their work, even communicating with the company's management through Geneva. However, IBM itself disclaimed any responsibility for the activities of its enterprises in Germany during the war period from 1941 to 1945.

In the United States, during the war period, IBM worked for the government and not always in its direct line of business. Its manufacturing facilities and workers were busy with the production of rifles (in particular the Browning Automatic Rifle and M1 Carbine), bombing sights, engine parts, etc. Thomas Watson, still in charge of the company at the time, set a nominal profit of 1% on these products. And even this minuscule was not sent to the piggy bank of the blue giant, but to the foundation of a fund to help widows and orphans who lost their loved ones in the war.

There was also an application for calculating machines located in the States. They were used for various mathematical calculations, logistics and other needs of the war. They were no less actively used when working on the Manhattan project, in which the atomic bomb was created.

Big mainframe time

The beginning of the second half of the last century was of great importance for modern world. Then the first digital computers began to appear. And IBM took an active part in their creation. The very first American programmable computer was the Mark I (full name Aiken-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator Mark I). The most amazing thing is that it was based on the ideas of Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first computer. By the way, he never completed it. But in the 19th century, this was difficult to do. IBM took advantage of his calculations, shifted them to the technologies of that time, and the Mark I saw the light. It was built in 1943, and a year later it was officially put into operation. The history of "Markov" did not last long. In total, four modifications were produced, the last of which, the Mark IV, was introduced in 1952.

In the 1950s, IBM received another major order from the government to develop computers for the SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) system. This military system, designed to track and intercept the bombers of a potential enemy. This project allowed the blue giant to gain access to the research of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then he worked on the first computer, which could easily serve as prototypes of modern systems. So it included a built-in screen, a magnetic memory array, supported digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions, had some kind of computer network, could transmit digital data over a telephone line, supported multiprocessing. In addition, so-called "light guns" could be connected to it, which were previously widely used as an alternative to the joystick in consoles and slot machines. There was even support for the first algebraic computer language.

IBM built 56 computers for the SAGE project. The cost of each was $ 30 million at the prices of the 50s. 7,000 employees of the company worked on them, which at that time was 20% of the entire staff of the company. In addition to big profits, the blue giant was able to gain invaluable experience, as well as access to military developments. Later, all this was applied in the creation of computers of the next generations.

The next major event for IBM was the release of the System/360 computer. He is associated with almost the change of an entire era. Before him, the blue giant produced systems based on vacuum tubes. For example, after the aforementioned Mark I, the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC) was introduced in 1948, consisting of 21,400 relays and 12,500 vacuum tubes, capable of performing several thousand operations per second.

In addition to SAGE computers, IBM worked on other projects for the military. So Korean War required the use of faster means of calculation than a large programmable calculator. Thus, a completely electronic computer (not from relays, but from lamps) IBM 701 was developed, which worked 25 times faster than SSEC, and at the same time took up four times less space. Over the next few years, the modernization of tube computers continued. For example, the IBM 650 machine became famous, which produced about 2000 units.

No less significant for today's computer technology was the invention in 1956 of a device called the RAMAC 305. It became the prototype of what today is the abbreviation HDD or just a hard disk. The first hard drive weighed about 900 kilograms, and its capacity was only 5 MB. The main innovation was the use of 50 aluminum round constantly rotating plates, on which magnetized elements were the information carriers. This made it possible to provide random access to files, which at the same time significantly increased the speed of data processing. But this pleasure was not cheap - it cost $ 50,000 at the prices of that time. Over 50 years, progress has reduced the cost of one megabyte of data on a HDD from $10,000 to $0.00013, based on the average cost of a 1TB hard drive.

The middle of the last century was also marked by the arrival of transistors to replace lamps. The blue giant began its first attempts to use these elements in 1958 with the announcement of the IBM 7070 system. Somewhat later, computers of the 1401 and 1620 models appeared. The first was intended to perform various business tasks, and the second was a small scientific computer used to develop the design of freeways and bridges. That is, both more compact specialized computers and more bulky, but with much higher system speeds, were created. An example of the former is the 1440 model, developed in 1962 for small and medium-sized businesses, and an example of the latter is the 7094, actually a supercomputer of the early 60s used in the aerospace industry.

Another building block on the way to the creation of System / 360 was the creation of terminal systems. Users were allocated a separate monitor and keyboard, which were connected to one central computer. Here is the prototype of the client / server architecture paired with a multi-user operating system.

As is often the case, in order to make the most of innovations, you have to take all the previous developments, find their common ground, and then design a new system that uses the best aspects of new technologies. The IBM System/360, introduced in 1964, became such a computer.

It is somewhat reminiscent of modern computers, which, if necessary, can be updated and to which you can connect various external devices. A new range of 40 peripherals has been developed for the System/360. These included hard drives IBM 2311 and IBM 2314, tape drives IBM 2401 and 2405, equipment for working with punched cards, text recognition devices, and various communication interfaces.

Another important innovation is unlimited virtual space. Prior to the System/360, this sort of thing cost a fortune. Of course, for this innovation, something had to be reprogrammed, but the result was worth it.

Above we wrote about specialized computers for science and business. Agree, this is somewhat inconvenient for both the user and the developer. System/360 became universal system, which could be used for most tasks. Moreover, a much larger number of people could now use it - simultaneous connection of up to 248 terminals was supported.

The creation of the IBM System/360 was not at all such a cheap undertaking. The computer was only designed for three quarters, for which about a billion dollars were spent. Another $4.5 billion was spent on investing in factories and new equipment for them. In total, five factories were opened and 60,000 employees were hired. Thomas Watson Jr., who succeeded his father as president in 1956, called the project "the most expensive private commercial project in history."

The 70s and the IBM System/370 era

The next decade in the history of IBM was not so revolutionary, but several important events took place. The 70s opened with the release of the System/370. After several modifications to System/360, this system became a more complex and serious redesign of the original mainframe.

The most important innovation of the System/370 is the support for virtual memory, that is, in fact, it is an extension random access memory through the constant. Today, this principle is actively used in modern operating systems of the Windows and Unix families. However, it was not included in the first versions of System/370. IBM made virtual memory widely available in 1972 with the introduction of the System/370 Advanced Function.

Of course, the list of innovations does not end there. The System/370 series of mainframes supported 31-bit addressing instead of 24-bit. By default, dual-processor support was supported, and there was also compatibility with 128-bit fractional arithmetic. Another important "feature" of System/370 is full backward compatibility with System/360. Software, of course.

The company's next mainframe was the System/390 (or S/390), introduced in 1990. It was a 32-bit system, although it retained compatibility with 24-bit System/360 and 31-bit System/370 addressing. In 1994, it became possible to combine several System/390 mainframes into a single cluster. This technology is called Parallel Sysplex.

After System/390, IBM introduced the z/Architecture. Its main innovation is support for a 64-bit address space. At the same time, new mainframes were released with a large number of processors (first 32, then 54). The appearance of z/Architecture falls on the year 2000, that is, this development is completely new. Today, within its framework, System z9 and System z10 are available, which continue to enjoy steady popularity. And what's more, they continue to be backwards compatible with System/360 and later mainframes, which is something of a record.

On this we close the topic of large mainframes, for which we talked about their history up to the present day.

Meanwhile, IBM had a conflict with the authorities. It was preceded by the departure of the blue giant's main competitors from the market for large computer systems. In particular, NCR and Honeywall decided to focus on more profitable niche markets. And System/360 was so successful that no one could compete with it. As a result, IBM effectively became a monopolist in the mainframe market.

All this on January 19, 1969 flowed into a trial. Not surprisingly, IBM was accused of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which provides for liability for monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the market for electronic computer systems, especially systems intended for business use. The proceedings lasted until 1983 and ended for IBM with the fact that it seriously reconsidered its view of doing business.

It is possible that the antitrust proceedings influenced the "Future Systems project", within which it was supposed to once again combine all the knowledge and experience from past projects (just like in the days of System / 360) and create a new type of computer that will once again surpass all previously made systems. Work on it was carried out between 1971 and 1975. Economic inexpediency is cited as the reason for its closure - according to analysts, it would not have fought back the way it happened with System / 360. Or maybe IBM really decided to hold back a bit because of the ongoing litigation.

Another very important event in the computer world is attributed to the same decade, although it happened in 1969. IBM began to sell services for the manufacture of software and the software itself separately from the hardware component. Today, this surprises few people - even the modern generation of domestic users of pirated software is used to the fact that you have to pay for programs. But then, numerous complaints, criticism of the press, and at the same time lawsuits began to pour on the heads of the blue giant. As a result, IBM began to sell separately only application applications, while the software for controlling the computer (System Control Programming), in fact, the operating system, was free.

And at the very beginning of the 80s, a certain Bill Gates from Microsoft proved that the operating system can also be paid.

Time of small personal computers

Until the 1980s, IBM was very active on large orders. Several times they were made by the government, several times by the military. She supplied her mainframes, as a rule, to educational and scientific institutions, as well as to large corporations. It is unlikely that anyone bought a separate System / 360 or 370 cabinet and a dozen bedside cabinets based on magnetic tapes and already reduced by a couple of times compared to RAMAC 305 hard drives.

The blue giant was above the needs of the average consumer, who needs much less to be completely happy than NASA or the next university. It gave a chance to stand on the feet of the semi-basement Apple with the logo of Newton holding an apple, soon changed to just a bitten apple. And Apple came up with completely simple thing- a computer for everyone. This idea was not supported by either Hewlett-Packard, where Steve Wozniak outlined it, or other large IT companies of that time.

By the time IBM realized it was already too late. The world was already raving about the Apple II, the most popular and successful Apple computer in its history (and not the Macintosh, as many believe). But it's better late than never. It was not difficult to guess that this market is at the very beginning of its development. The result was the IBM PC (Model 5150). It happened on August 12, 1981.

The most striking thing is that this was not the first IBM personal computer. The title of the first belongs to the 5100 model, released back in 1975. It was much more compact than mainframes, had a separate monitor, data storage and keyboard. But he was meant to solve scientific tasks. For businessmen and just lovers of technology, he did not fit well. And not least because of the price, which was about $20,000.

The IBM PC not only changed the world, but the company's approach to building computers. Prior to this, IBM made any computer from and to on its own, without resorting to the help of third parties. With the IBM 5150 it turned out differently. At that time, the personal computer market was divided between the Commodore PET, the Atari family of 8-bit systems, the Apple II, and Tandy Corporation's TRS-80s. Therefore, IBM was in a hurry not to miss the moment.

A group of 12 people working in the Florida city of Boca Raton under the direction of Don Estridzha (Don Estrige), were assigned to work on Project Chess (literally "Project Chess"). They completed the task in about a year. One of their key decisions was the use of third-party developments. This simultaneously saved a lot of money and time on their own scientific personnel.

Initially, Don chose the IBM 801 as a processor and an operating system specially developed for it. But a little earlier, the blue giant launched the Datamaster microcomputer (full name System / 23 Datamaster or IBM 5322), which was based on the Intel 8085 processor (a slightly simplified modification of Intel 8088). This was precisely the reason for choosing the Intel 8088 processor for the first IBM PC. Even the expansion slots of the IBM PC coincided with those of the Datamaster. Well, the Intel 8088 required a new DOS operating system, very timely proposed by a small company from Redmond called Microsoft. They did not begin to make a new design for the monitor and printer. The monitor previously created by the Japanese division of IBM was chosen as the first one, and the Epson printer became the printing device.

The IBM PC was sold in various configurations. The most expensive one cost $3005. It was equipped with an Intel 8088 processor running at 4.77 MHz, which, if desired, could be supplemented with an Intel 8087 coprocessor, which made floating point calculations possible. The amount of RAM was 64 KB. 5.25-inch floppy drives were supposed to be used as a device for permanent data storage. One or two of them could be installed. Later, IBM began to supply models that allowed the connection of cassette storage media.

The hard drive in the IBM 5150 could not be installed due to insufficient power supply. However, the company's so-called "expansion module" or Expansion Unit (also known as the IBM 5161 Expansion Chassis) with a 10 MB hard drive. It required a separate power supply. In addition, a second HDD could be installed in it. It also had 5 expansion slots, while the computer itself had 8 more. But to connect the Expansion Unit, it was required to use the Extender Card and Receiver Card cards, which were installed in the module and in the case, respectively. Other computer expansion slots were usually occupied by a video card, cards with I / O ports, etc. It was also possible to increase the amount of RAM up to 256 KB.

"Home" IBM PC

The cheapest configuration cost $1565. Together with her, the buyer received the same processor, but there was only 16 KB of RAM. The computer did not come with a floppy drive, and there was also no standard CGA monitor. But there was an adapter for cassette drives and a video card designed to connect to a TV. Thus, an expensive modification of the IBM PC was created for business (where, by the way, it was quite widely used), and a cheaper one - for the home.

But there was another novelty in the IBM PC - the basic input / output system or BIOS (Basic Input / Output System). It is still used in modern computers, albeit in a slightly modified form. The latest motherboards already contain new EFI firmware or even stripped down Linux flavors, but it will definitely be a few years before the BIOS disappears.

The architecture of the IBM PC was made open and available to the public. Any manufacturer could make peripherals and software for an IBM computer without purchasing any license. At the same time, the blue giant sold the IBM PC Technical Reference Manual, which contained the complete BIOS source code. As a result, a year later, the world saw the first "IBM PC compatible" computers from Columbia Data Products. Compaq and other companies followed. The ice has broken.

IBM Personal Computer XT

In 1983, when the entire USSR celebrated International Women's Day, IBM released its next "male" product - IBM Personal Computer XT (short for eXtended Technology) or IBM 5160. The novelty replaced the original IBM PC, introduced two years earlier. It was an evolutionary development of personal computers. The processor was still the same, but in the basic configuration there were already 128 KB of RAM, and later 256 KB. The maximum volume has grown to 640 KB.

The XT shipped with one 5.25" drive, a 10MB Seagate ST-412 hard drive, and a 130W power supply. Later, models with a 20 MB hard drive appeared. Well, PC-DOS 2.0 was used as the base OS. To expand the functionality, a new 16-bit ISA bus was used at that time.

IBM Personal Computer/AT

The AT chassis standard is probably remembered by many old-timers in the computer world. They were used until the end of the last century. And it all started again with IBM and its IBM Personal Computer/AT or model 5170. AT stands for Advanced Technology. The new system represented the second generation of the blue giant's personal computers.

The most important innovation of the novelty was the use of the Intel 80286 processor with a frequency of 6, and then 8 MHz. Many new features of the computer were associated with it. In particular, it was a complete transition to a 16-bit bus and support for 24-bit addressing, which made it possible to increase the amount of RAM to 16 MB. The motherboard has a battery for powering the CMOS chip with a capacity of 50 bytes. Prior to that, it also did not exist.

For data storage, 5.25-inch drives with support for 1.2 MB floppy disks were now used, while the previous generation provided no more than 360 KB. The hard drive now had a permanent capacity of 20 MB and was twice as fast as the previous model. The monochrome video card and monitors were replaced with adapters that support the EGA standard, capable of displaying up to 16 colors at a resolution of 640x350. Optionally, for professional work with graphics, it was possible to order a PGC video card (Professional Graphics Controller), costing $4290, capable of displaying up to 256 colors on a screen with a resolution of 640x480, and at the same time supporting 2D and 3D acceleration for CAD applications.

To support all this variety of innovations, the operating system had to be seriously modified, which was released under the name PC-DOS 3.0.

Not a ThinkPad yet, not an IBM PC anymore

We believe that many people know that the first portable computer in 1981 was Osborne 1, developed by Osborne Computer Corporation. It was such a suitcase weighing 10.7 kg and costing $1795. The idea of ​​such a device was not unique - its first prototype was developed back in 1976 at the Xerox PARC research center. However, by the mid-80s, sales of the Osborns had come to naught.

Of course, other companies quickly picked up a good idea, which, in principle, is in the order of things - just remember what other ideas were "stolen" from Xerox PARC. In November 1982, Compaq announced plans to release a portable computer. Hyperion was released in January - Calculating machine, running MS-DOS and somewhat reminiscent of Osborne 1. But it was not fully compatible with the IBM PC. This title was prepared by Compaq Portable, which appeared a couple of months later. In fact, it was an IBM PC combined in one case with a small screen and an external keyboard. "Suitcase" weighed 12.5 kg and was estimated at over $4,000.

IBM, clearly noticing that it was missing something, quickly set about creating its primitive laptop. As a result, in February 1984, the IBM Portable Personal Computer or IBM Portable PC 5155 saw the light. The novelty also resembled the original IBM PC in many ways, with the only exception that 256 KB of RAM was installed in it. In addition, it was $700 cheaper than the Compaq counterpart, and at the same time it had improved anti-theft technology - it weighed 13.5 kg.

Two years later, progress has moved a couple of steps forward. IBM did not hesitate to take advantage of this, deciding to make its portable computers something more justifying its title. So in April 1986, the IBM Convertible or IBM 5140 appeared. The Convertible no longer looked like a suitcase, but a large case weighing only 5.8 kg. It cost about half as much - about $2000.

The good old Intel 8088 (more precisely, its updated version 80c88) was used as a processor, operating at a frequency of 4.77 MHz. But instead of 5.25-inch drives, 3.5-inch drives were used, capable of working with disks with a capacity of 720 KB. The amount of RAM was 256 KB, but it could be increased up to 512 KB. But a much more important innovation was the use of a monochrome LCD capable of 80x25 resolution for text or 640x200 and 320x200 for graphics.

But the expansion options for Convertible were much more modest than for IBM Portable. There was only one ISA slot, while the blue giant's first generation of portable PCs allowed you to install almost as many expansion cards as a regular desktop computer (still it wouldn't allow it with such and such dimensions). This circumstance, as well as a passive non-backlit screen and the availability on the market of more productive (or models with the same configuration, but available at a much lower price) counterparts from Compaq, Toshiba and Zenith did not make the IBM Convertible a popular solution. But it was made until 1991, when it was replaced by the IBM PS/2 L40 SX. Let's talk about PS/2 in more detail.

IBM Personal System/2

Until now, many of us use keyboards and sometimes even mice with a PS / S interface. However, not everyone knows where he came from and how this abbreviation stands for. PS/2 stands for Personal System/2, a computer introduced by IBM in 1987. He belonged to the third generation of the blue giant's personal computers, whose purpose was to regain lost ground in the PC market.

The IBM PS/2 failed. Its sales were supposed to be high, but the system was very innovative and closed, which automatically raised its final cost. Consumers preferred more affordable IBM PC clones. Nevertheless, the PS / 2 architecture left a lot behind.

The main PS/2 operating system was IBM OS/2. For her, new PCs were equipped with two BIOSes at once: ABIOS (Advanced BIOS) and CBIOS (Compatible BIOS). The first was required to boot OS/2, and the second was for backward compatibility with IBM PC/XT/AT software. However, for the first few months PS/2 shipped with PC-DOS. Later, Windows and AIX (one of the Unix variants) could be installed as an option.

Together with PS / 2, a new bus standard was introduced to expand the functionality of computers - MCA (Micro Channel Architecture). It was supposed to replace ISA. In terms of speed, the MCA corresponded to the PCI introduced a few years later. In addition, it had many interesting innovations, in particular, it supported the ability to exchange data directly between expansion cards, or simultaneously between multiple cards and a processor via a separate channel. All this later found application in the PCI-X server bus. MCA itself never gained popularity due to IBM's refusal to license it, so that clones would not appear again. In addition, the new interface was not compatible with ISA.

In those days, a DIN connector was used to connect the keyboard, and a COM connector for the mouse. New IBM personal computers offered to replace them with more compact PS / 2. Today, these connectors are already disappearing from modern motherboards, but then they were also available only to IBM. Only a few years later they "went to the masses." The point here is not only the closed nature of the technology, but also the need to refine the BIOS in order to fully support this interface.

PS / 2 made an important contribution to the video card market. Prior to 1987, there were several types of monitor connectors. Often they had many contacts, whose number was equal to the number of colors displayed. IBM decided to replace them all with one universal D-SUB connector. Through it, information about the depth of red, green and blue colors was transmitted, bringing the number of displayed shades to 16.7 million. In addition, it has become easier for software to work with one type of connector than to support several.

Another innovation from IBM is video cards with a built-in frame buffer (Video Graphics Array or VGA), which today is called video card memory. Then its volume in PS / 2 was 256 KB. This was enough for a resolution of 640x480 with 16 colors, or 320x200 with 256 colors. The new video cards worked with the MCA interface, so they were only available for PS/2 computers. Nevertheless, the VGA standard has become widespread over time.

Instead of large and not the most reliable 5.25-inch floppy disks, IBM decided to use 3.5-inch drives. The company was the first to start using them as the main standard. The main novelty of the new computers was the doubled capacity of floppy disks - up to 1.44 MB. And by the end of PS/2, it had doubled to 2.88 MB. By the way, PS / 2 drives had one rather serious bug. They couldn't tell a 720 KB floppy from a 1.44 MB floppy. Thus it was possible to format the first as the second. In principle, it worked, but it threatened to lose data, and after such an operation, only another PS / 2 computer could read the information from the floppy disk.

And one more novelty PS / 2 - 72-pin SIMM RAM modules instead of outdated SIPP. After a few years, they became the standard for all personal and not so personal computers, until they were replaced by DIMM strips.

So we've come to the end of the 80s. In these 10 years, IBM has done much more for the average consumer than in all the past years to this year. Thanks to her personal computers, we can now assemble our own computer, and not buy ready-made, as Apple would like. Nothing prevents us from installing any operating system on it, except for Mac OS, which, again, is available only to owners of Apple computers. We got freedom, and IBM lost the market, but earned the glory of a pioneer.

By the early 1990s, the blue giant was no longer the dominant player in the computer world. Intel then ruled the processor market, Microsoft dominated the application software segment, Novell was successful in networking, Hewlett-Packard in printers. Even hard drives invented by IBM began to be produced by other companies, as a result of which Seagate was able to come out on top (already in the late 80s and holds this championship to this day).

Not everything went well in the corporate sector. Invented by IBM employee Edgar Codd in 1970, the concept of relational databases (in a nutshell, this is a way to display data in the form of two-dimensional tables) began to gain wide popularity in the early 80s. IBM was even involved in the creation of the SQL query language. And here's the pay for the work - Oracle became number one in the field of DBMS by the beginning of the 90s.

Well, in the personal computer market, it was replaced by Compaq, and eventually also by Dell. As a result, IBM President John Akers (John Akers) began the process of reorganizing the company, dividing it into autonomous divisions, each of which was engaged in one specific area. Thus, he wanted to improve production efficiency and reduce production costs. This is how IBM met the last decade of the 20th century.

Crisis time

The 1990s got off to a pretty good start for IBM. Despite the decline in the popularity of its personal computers, the company still made a big profit. The largest in its history. It is a pity that this was only at the end of the 80s. Later, the blue giant simply did not catch the main trends in the computer world, which led to not the most pleasant consequences.

Despite the success of personal computers in the penultimate decade of the last century, IBM continued to receive most of its income from mainframe sales. But the development of technology has made it possible to switch to the use of more compact personal computers, and with them to large computers based on microprocessors. In addition, regular ones sold at lower margins than mainframes.

Now, you only need to add up the decline in sales of a profitable core product, the loss of your position in the personal computer market, and the failure of Novell's network technology market to be surprised by $1 billion in losses in 1990 and 1991. And 1992 turned out to be a new record - $ 8.1 billion in losses. It was the largest corporate annual loss in US history.

Is it any wonder that the company began to "move"? In 1993, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. took over as president. His plan was to change the situation, for which he radically restructured the company's policy, focusing the main divisions on the provision of services and software development. In the field of hardware, IBM certainly had a lot to offer, but because of the many computer manufacturers and the presence of other technology companies, it did not. All the same, there will be someone who will offer a cheaper and no less functional product.

As a result, in the second half of the decade, IBM expanded its software portfolio with applications from Lotus, WebSphere, Tivoli, and Rational. Well, she also continued to develop her own relational DB2 DBMS.

ThinkPad

Despite the crisis of the 90s, the blue giant nevertheless presented one popular product. It was a line of ThinkPad laptops that still exists today, albeit under the auspices of Lenovo. It was presented in the face of three models 700, 700C and 700T in October 1992. Mobile computers were equipped with a 10.4-inch screen, 25 MHz Intel 80486SLC processor, 120 MB hard drive, Windows 3.1 operating system. Their cost at the same time was $4350.

IBM ThinkPad 701 with butterfly keyboard

A little about the origin of the name of the series. The word "Think" (think) was imprinted on the leather-bound IBM corporate notebooks. One of the participants in the next generation mobile PC project suggested adding a "Pad" (keyboard, keypad) to it. At first, not everyone accepted ThinkPad, citing the fact that so far the name of all IBM systems has been numerical. However, in the end, ThinkPad went as the official name of the series.

The first ThinkPad laptops became very popular. Within a fairly short time, they have collected more than 300 awards from various publications for high quality workmanship and multiple design innovations. The latter in particular include the "butterfly keyboard", which was slightly raised and stretched in width to make it more convenient to work. Later, with an increase in the diagonal of the screen of mobile computers, it was no longer needed.

For the first time, TrackPoint was used - a new type of manipulator. Today, it is still installed in ThinkPad laptops and many other enterprise-class mobile PCs. In some models, an LED was installed on the screen to illuminate the keyboard in the dark. For the first time, IBM integrated an accelerometer into a laptop that detected a fall, after which the hard drive heads parked, which greatly increased the likelihood of data being saved during a strong impact. ThinkPads were the first to use fingerprint scanners, as well as a built-in TPM module for data protection. Now all this is used to some extent by all laptop manufacturers. But do not forget that thanks for all these "charms of life" should be IBM.

While Apple was paying big bucks to have Tom Cruise save the world in Mission: Impossible with the new PowerBook, IBM was really pushing humanity's progress into a brighter future with its ThinkPad laptops. For example, the ThinkPad 750 flew on the shuttle Endeavor in 1993. Then the main task of the mission was to repair the Hubble telescope. The ThinkPad A31p has been used on the ISS for a long time.

Today, the Chinese company Lenovo continues to support many of the IBM traditions. But that's the story of the next decade.

New age time

Started in the mid-1990s, the company's change of course has reached its apogee in the current decade. IBM continued to focus on providing consulting services, creating new technologies for the sale of licenses for them, as well as developing software, while not forgetting about expensive equipment - the blue giant has not left this area so far.

The final stage of the reorganization took place between 2002 and 2004. In 2002, IBM acquired the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and also sold its hard drive division to Hitachi. Thus, the blue giant abandoned the further production of hard drives, which he himself had invented half a century earlier.

IBM is not going to leave the business of supercomputers and mainframes yet. The company continues to fight for the first places in the Top500 ranking and continues to do so with a fairly high degree of success. In 2002, a special program was even launched with a budget of $10 billion, according to which IBM created necessary technologies for the possibility of providing access to supercomputers of any company almost immediately after receiving a request.

While the blue giant has been doing well with large computers so far, not everything has gone well with small personal computers. As a result, 2004 was marked as the year of the sale of IBM's computer business to the Chinese company Lenovo. The last to go were all developments in personal systems, including the popular ThinkPad series. Lenovo even got the right to use the IBM brand for five years. IBM itself received $650 million in cash and $600 million in stock in return. Now she owns 19% of Lenovo. At the same time, the blue giant also continues to sell servers. Still not to continue, being in the top three largest players in this market.

So what happened in the end? In 2005, about 195,000 employees worked for IBM, among whom the company noted 350 as "outstanding engineers", and 60 people bore the honorary title of IBM Fellow. This title was introduced in 1962 by then-president Thomas Watsan to distinguish the best employees of the company. Usually no more than 4-5 people received IBM Fellow per year. Since 1963, there have been about 200 such employees in total. Of these, in May 2008, 70 people worked.

With such a serious scientific potential, IBM has become one of the leaders innovation activities. Between 1993 and 2005, the blue giant received 31,000 patents. At the same time, in 2003 he set a record for the number of patents received by one company in a year - 3415 pieces.

Ultimately, today IBM has become less accessible to the general consumer. In fact, the same thing happened before the 80s. For 20 years the company worked with retail products, but still returned to its roots, although in a slightly different incarnation. But still, its technologies and developments reach us in the form of devices from other manufacturers. So the blue giant remains with us further.

Afterword time

At the end of the article, we would like to give a short list of the most important discoveries made by IBM during its existence, but not mentioned above. After all, it is always nice to be amazed once again that one or another well-known company is behind the creation of another favorite electronic toy.

The beginning of the era of high-level programming languages ​​is attributed to IBM. Well, maybe not to her personally, but she took a very active part in this process. In 1954, the IBM 704 computer was introduced, one of the main "chips" of which was the support of the Fortran language (short for Formula Translation). The main goal of its creation was to replace the low-level assembly language with something more human-readable.

In 1956, the first Fortran reference manual appeared. And in the future, his popularity continued to grow. Mainly due to the inclusion of a language translator in the standard software package for IBM computer systems. This language became the main one for scientific applications for many years, and also gave impetus to the development of other high-level programming languages.

We have already mentioned IBM's contribution to the development of databases. In fact, thanks to the blue giant, today most of the sites on the Internet that use relational DBMS operate. They do not hesitate to use the SQL language, which also came out of the bowels of IBM. In 1974, it was introduced by company employees Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce. It was then called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), and after that the abbreviation was shortened to SQL (Structured Query Language), since "SEQUEL" was a trademark of the British airline Hawker Siddeley.

Probably, some still remember how they ran games from cassette recorders on their home (well, or not home) EU computer. But IBM was one of the first to use magnetic tape for data storage. In 1952, together with the IBM 701, it introduced the first magnetic tape drive that could write and read data.

Diskettes. Left to right: 8", 5.25", 3.5"

Floppy disks also appeared thanks to IBM. In 1966, it introduced the first drive with a metal recording head. Five years later, she announced the beginning of the mass distribution of floppy disks and drives for them.

IBM 3340 "Winchester"

The slang word "hard drive" for a hard drive also came from the bowels of IBM. In 1973, the company introduced the IBM 3340 "Winchester" hard drive. It got its name from the head of the development team, Kenneth Haughton, who assigned the IBM 3340 the internal name "30-30", derived from the name of the Winchester 30-30 rifle. "30-30" directly indicated the capacity of the device - two plates of 30 MB each were installed in it. By the way, it was this model that first received a great commercial success in the market.

We should also thank IBM for our modern memory. It was she who in 1966 invented the technology for the production of dynamic memory, where only one transistor was allocated for one bit of data. As a result, it was possible to significantly increase the density of data recording. Probably, this discovery led the company's engineers to create a special ultra-fast data buffer or cache. In 1968, this was first implemented in the System / 360 Model 85 mainframe and could store up to 16 thousand characters.

The architecture of PowerPC processors also appeared largely thanks to IBM. And although it was developed jointly by Apple, IBM and Motorola, it was based on the IBM 801 processor, which the company planned to install in its first personal computers in the early 80s. At first, the architecture was supported by Sun and Microsoft. However, other developers did not seek to write programs for it. As a result, Apple remained its only user for almost 15 years.

In 2006, Apple abandoned PowerPC in favor of the x86 architecture, and in particular Intel processors. Motorola withdrew from the alliance in 2004. Well, IBM still did not curtail its development, but directed them in a slightly different direction. A few years ago, so much text was written about the Cell processor that it was enough for several books. Today it is used in the Sony PlayStation 3, and Toshiba has installed a simplified version of it in its flagship multimedia laptop Qosmio Q50.

On this, perhaps, we will round off. If you wish, you can find many other amazing discoveries of IBM, and at the same time write a lot of words about its future projects, but then you should already boldly start writing a separate book. After all, the company conducts research in various fields. She has hundreds of active projects, including such as nanotechnology and holographic data carriers, speech recognition, communication with a computer using thoughts, new ways to control a computer, and so on - several pages of text will go to one listing. So we put an end to this.

P.S. And at the very end, a little about the origin of the term "blue giant" (or "Big Blue"), as IBM is often called. As it turned out, the company itself has nothing to do with it. Products with the word "Blue" in the title appeared only in the 90s (in particular, in a series of supercomputers), and the press has been calling it the "blue giant" since the early 80s. IBM officials speculate that this may have come from the blue lid of its mainframes that were made in the 60s.

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 between IBM and Microsoft turned the latter from an ordinary company into a giant in 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.

There are quite a few articles devoted to IBM and Microsoft companies, both in printed publications as well as on various Internet resources. It would seem, what new can be reported about them? After all, there are no white spots in the history of these companies ... or almost none? However, we will 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 is located in Armonk, New York.

Of course for complete description history of IBM a small article is not enough, so we will not go into chronological details, but 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 rather about its history, then it is worth starting with the invention by Herman Hollerith of an electric machine for processing data using punched cards. 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 punch-and-punch machines. Subsequently, Hollerith's paper punched cards served as the basis for data storage systems and were actively used until the 50s of the XX century.

The electromechanical 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 subsequently renamed IBM.

In 1914, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. became the general manager of CTR and led the company successfully for almost 40 years.

The CTR Company specialized in the manufacture of tabulators and other perforating machines, and by 1919 its turnover had reached $2 million.

The production of perforating machines remained the main activity of the company until 1952, when Thomas Watson Jr. took over as president of the company. It was then that IBM came to grips with the development and production of computers.

Omitting some facts from the history of IBM, let's fast forward to 1980, when events took place that significantly influenced its future fate.

By 1980, IBM was the largest computer company: it owned virtually half of all the profits in the world computer market, and the number of employees was 425,000. However, American companies competing with IBM had already begun to manufacture and sell small home computers called microcomputers. It is authentically 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. It should not be assumed that its leadership sat idly by and watched the development of the situation indifferently. As Paul Carrol, author of Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM, recalls, IBM made two or three serious attempts to build a microcomputer, but they were all 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 made all the components for its computers in-house. The engineers decided to change this strategy and offered to produce computers using separate components from other manufacturers. The idea was promoted by administrator Bill Lowe.

“For the first time, we recommended to IBM management that they change their policy and start using third-party software and components in their products,” recalls Bill Lowe. IBM management hesitated for a long time before making a final decision. And in order to test how viable this idea is, an initiative group led by Bill Lowe was instructed to prepare for the development of a microcomputer. The assembly of all the components necessary for its creation was carried out by the administrator of the department of special projects, Jack Sams. Here is how he recalls the events of that time: “I remember that the first meeting was scheduled for Sunday. We were 13 people, and we were told that we were given 30 days to prepare a program to create and test a new system.”

However, here we will interrupt the story in order to talk about Microsoft, since the further history of IBM is connected with it.

Microsoft

The history of Microsoft, of course, is shorter than that of IBM - it begins on April 4, 1975. It was then in Albuquerque, New Mexico, childhood friends Paul Allen and Bill Gates registered a software development company called Microsoft.

Bill Gates, then 20 years old, dropped out of college to get serious about programming and working for his own company. While still in college, he made a living programming. In addition, Gates turned out to be a talented and rather adventurous entrepreneur. Here is how Stephen Maines, the author of a biography of Gates, speaks of him “flatteringly”: “He hired teenagers who worked for him and sold their work, paying them a pittance and ripping off exorbitant prices from clients.”

Even before the formation of Microsoft, Gates and Allen created the Basic programming language, the rights to use which were sold to MITS, the first to develop a personal computer - Altair.

In 1977, Microsoft released its first product, the Fortran programming language, to run 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 in October of the same year, Apple and Radio Shack bought the rights to use and license Basic from Microsoft.

The company gained wide popularity on April 4, 1978, receiving a million dollar prize for the development of the Basic language, which became the first high-level programming language for 16-bit processors.

By 1980, Microsoft had 30 employees, including director of sales Mark Ursino.

“I have always admired Bill Gates' ability to talk about literally everything. He was a great 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 had 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 tracksuit. The atmosphere in the company was relaxed, like in a bachelor fraternity,” recalls Bob O’Reir.

Microsoft 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 stored in a shoe box.

Deal between IBM and Microsoft

Bill Lowe, head of IBM's personal computer initiative, assigned Jack Sams to contact Microsoft. Why this company was chosen - history is silent, but the fact remains: it was Microsoft that came to the attention of IBM. Jack Sams' 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 time had practically nothing.

On July 22, Jack Sams, along with other IBM representatives, arrived at 10800 at the corner of 8th and 108th streets in Bellevue. They went up to the eighth floor and went into Office 819, where Microsoft was located, and asked for 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 I realized that this was not a courier, but Bill Gates himself.”

Sams' task was to form an opinion about Gates and Microsoft, but at the same time, if possible, not to talk about IBM's plans.

“During the call, Gates was very tense and focused. He didn’t even care about the tie knocked to the side, ”Jack Sams comments on their first meeting.

Sams refrained from discussing the details of the project, but realized that Microsoft could provide them with both a programming language and an operating system.

"Now we just had to 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 Low presented the idea of ​​​​creating a microcomputer based on third-party components and software from Microsoft to IBM management. Not everyone in the company's management supported this idea, but ... Frank Carey, chairman of the Board of Directors, liked it. He gave Bill Low a free rein. Lowe and Sams were given a year to build the microcomputer, test it, and put it on the market.

The successful performance of Low's department promised IBM to win a key position in a new market and receive billions in profits. However, no one at IBM suspected that the 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 young computer firm, 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 is going to release and what the hardware of a personal computer will look like. He wanted to buy two products from Microsoft: a programming language and an operating system. Gates said that IBM can get the Basic programming language from Microsoft and there is no problem with that. However, there were serious problems with the operating system. “There is only one firm,” Gates explained, “that can do this. And that firm is not Microsoft.” Gates was confident that only Digital Research could develop the operating system that IBM needed.

Digital Research had a pretty good operating system designed to run on 8-bit processors, and all it needed was to remake it for 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 representatives 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.

August 22, 1980 Jack Sams arrived in California to meet with Gary Kildell. However, negotiations with the owner of Digital Research turned out to be unsuccessful. Gary Kildell refused to sign a unilateral secrecy agreement on 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 materialize. Sams called Bill Gates in desperation and said that they could not agree 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 is worth nothing.

Two weeks later, Gates' associate Paul Allan found a way out. A half-hour drive from Microsoft's office in the suburbs of Tukwila, the owner of a computer hardware store, Seattle Computer, had a rather raw, "home-grown" operating system. The store was owned by amateur programmer Rod Brock.

“The firm was supported by two techies - me and Tim Patterson. Tim and I tried to act like business people, but we were just techies, ”recalls Rod Brock.

25-year-old programmer Tim Patterson created the operating system in just four months and called it "Quick and Dirty Operating System" - Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS).

The QDOS system was good only as a draft for the future IBM operating system. It required significant changes, but the finished kernel saved many months of work. To fine-tune the operating system to mind, Tim Patterson was invited from the same Seattle Computer.

On September 22, 1980, Paul Allan called Rod Brock and suggested that he sell the QDOS license, to which he agreed, setting a price of $10,000. Gates contacted IBM and offered two options: either he buys the QDOS license, or IBM does it. At IBM, they preferred Microsoft to do it.

The next step was the preparation official offer IBM - the largest business proposal received in 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 formal proposal, Bill Gates and company director Steve Ballmer and chief programmer Bob O'Reir worked on the documents.

“We finished writing the proposal, pulled it out of the printer, put it in a folder and hurried to the airport,” recalls Bob O'Reir.

Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Bob O'Reir were the last passengers to board the overnight flight to Miami. September 30, 1980 at 7 o'clock in the morning they flew to Miami. The meeting was scheduled for 10 o'clock. She had three hours left.

As it turned out upon arrival, Gates did not even have a tie, which was absolutely necessary for a business meeting (and later it turned out that he did not even know how to tie it). Before visiting IBM, it was decided to go to the 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 came to the meeting with IBM representatives with a 20-minute delay.

The meeting with IBM representatives took place in Boka Raton. IBM introduced 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 make a deal. Jack Sams, who was kind to Gates, pulled him aside and whispered, “Don't be shy, ask for more. We know it's expensive and it must be expensive. If you want a million dollars, we'll give you a million."

But... Bill didn't need a million dollars. Gates surprised IBM with his offer: he asked for only $400,000 for a license for the Basic computer language and was willing to attach QDOS to it for free, but under the following conditions: he was paid one dollar for each computer sold by IBM and given the opportunity to sell his software to other computer manufacturers. IBM agreed to these terms, making the biggest strategic mistake in its history. IBM was skeptical about the personal computer market, naively believing that it would never become massive, and therefore felt that Mcirosoft's conditions were quite acceptable.

After two days of negotiations, Gates left Boca Reton with an oral agreement with IBM. For IBM, this deal was very cheap, and Gates, having negotiated the possibility of selling software to other firms, 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 of Seattle Computer could have abandoned the verbal agreement with Microsoft.

On November 10, Paul Allan was assigned to close a deal with Rod Brock of Seattle Computer. According to the verbal agreement, Brock was entitled to a certain amount each time Gates entered into a new agreement to release 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 did not even know about.

Before finalizing the deal, Gates unexpectedly decided to make changes to the contract with Seattle Computer. According to a preliminary agreement, Gates had a non-exclusive agreement to license the QDOS operating system. Now he wants to be the only seller of QDOS, arguing that the exclusive rights to use QDOS will allow Microsoft to increase sales. In two weeks, Gates and his lawyers prepared a new version of the agreement on the transfer of a license for the QDOS operating system.

On July 10, 1981, a version of the agreement was sent to Seattle Computer, which contained 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 was beneficial to Seattle Computer, as it would be able to sell computers with an improved QDOS operating system and receive all its future improvements for free. Even more seductive was the financial part of the proposal. By signing the contract, Brock received $ 50,000 from Microsoft. Needing money, on July 27, 1981, Brock agreed to Microsoft terms and signed the contract. Now the rights to the QDOS system were wholly owned by Microsoft.

While Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer settled things with the 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 to acquire QDOS, IBM released its first personal computer. In its design, 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, such as the i8088 microprocessor from Intel Corporation.

The official presentation of the IBM PC took place on September 12, 1981 in New York, its declared base price was $ 1,565. Nobody knew what would come of it.

Sales began in October 1981, and by the end of the year, more than 35,000 vehicles had been sold. However, the market demanded more and more. Five years later, PC production reached 3 million units. Competitors copied the design of IBM computers and started producing their own PC models. Since Bill Gates could sell his software without restriction, IBM's competitors bought both the MS-DOS operating system and the Basic programming language, which made Gates a millionaire almost instantly.

Nobody expected such a demand for personal computers, so IBM did not guess 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.

International Business Machines www.ibm.com ) (NYSE: IBM) is a key player in information technology. American company IBM is the largest global company, which manufactures and supplies software and hardware, is engaged in IT services and provides consulting services.

Company formation

The company was officially founded on June 16, 1911, although the first developments began in the late 19th century. original name companies - Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR). The company was founded by Herman Hollerith, a talented statistician and engineer who invented the first calculating machines. At that time, the company's products included various electrical equipment. In particular, CTR was engaged in the production of scales, cheese cutters, perforating machines, etc. Thomas Watson, who took over as CEO in 1914, played an important role in the history of the company. Then the specialization of CTR was the production of tabulation machines.

IBM acquired its modern name in 1924, when the company significantly expanded its product range and entered the Canadian market.

Already in 1943, IBM released its first computer.

IBM is headquartered in Armonk, New York State.

Product line

The company is a major developer of operating and file systems, database management systems, office suites and middleware packages, VisualAge development environments and compilers.

An important direction of IBM's work is the production of microprocessors of the POWER architecture, as well as workstations and servers based on them, as well as based on Xeon. The company is engaged in the development of mainframes of the IBM System z series, supercomputers. The most famous of them are Deep Blue, Blue Gene, IBM Watson. Another popular product is a storage system called IBM System Storage.

Finance

In 1968, the company held a public offering of its shares on the American stock exchange NYSE. On this moment almost all one hundred percent of IBM shares are in free circulation. Last year, the company's revenue reached almost one hundred billion dollars, and net profit - 16.5 billion. In 2014, the company's capitalization amounted to 161.69 billion dollars. And last year, IBM shares hit a record high of $212.06 a share, pushing the company's capitalization to $236.3 billion.

Among the largest shareholders of IBM are such prominent companies as Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Northern Trust Corp, State Street Corp, Vanguard Group Inc, Bank of New York Mellon, State Farm Mutual AU.

IBM (IBM, International Business Machines) is an American electronic corporation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of all types of computers and software, providers of global information networks. The corporate headquarters is located in Armonk, New York. It is often referred to as 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 over 90 years. Using its own resources and those of business partners in 170 countries, IBM offers a range of services, solutions and technologies that enable organizations of all sizes to take full advantage of the new era of e-business.

Creation of IBM

The company's history dates back to the late 19th century, when Herman Hollerith, a German immigrant working for the US Census Bureau, proposed automating immigrant statistics using punched cards. Invented by him electric machine for data processing turned out to be a good model, and in 1896 Hollerith founded a company called the Tabulating Machine Co.

On June 15, 1911, this company was merged with two other companies specializing in the automation of statistical data processing. The combined company became known as Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR). She managed to conquer her sector of the market and after a while 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 1920-1940s. By 1919, the company's turnover had doubled to $2 million. As CTR machines found distribution in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, CTR was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924.

The Great Depression of the 1930s also took a toll on IBM. Despite the decline in production, Watson continued to finance research and development, paid employees forced leave. As a result, by 1935, when the US government needed automated employment records for 26 million people, IBM was ready to fulfill this order in as soon as possible. Since that time, IBM Corporation has been constantly fulfilling orders for the supply of equipment for government agencies. In the same 1935, IBM engineers created the first electric typewriter.

The first electronic computers

During the Second World War, the corporation's production facilities were reoriented to fulfill defense orders. Nevertheless, it was in the IBM laboratories, together with scientists from Harvard University (among them Howard Aiken), that work was underway on the creation of one of the first electronic computers - an automatic sequential controlled calculator (Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator). Such a machine was assembled in 1944 and received the name "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 electronic vacuum tubes. Unlike the electromechanical switches used in the Mark-1, the electronic tubes in this machine were easily replaced in the event of a malfunction, and most importantly, they made it possible to increase the calculation speed to 17,000 operations per second. Created in 1954 based on new technology The NORC computer entered service with the US Naval Artillery the same year. With its help, complex ballistic calculations were made, which made it possible to effectively control the fire of coastal artillery at an ultra-long distance. In 1957, IBM'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 has become widespread in commercial firms, and in 1960 it was used at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley (USA). In the same 1957, Fortran programming language was developed by IBM engineers. 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 general purpose computer), the 7090, capable of 229,000 operations per second. Such mainframes enabled the US Air Force to develop a ballistic missile early warning system. In 1964, based on two 7090 mainframes, the American airline SABER pioneered automated system sale and booking of air tickets in 65 cities of the world.

IBM compatible computers

In April 1964, the release of the first six software-compatible models of the IBM System-360 family on integrated circuits was announced. They had a common set of peripherals and external storage devices, single system standard data structures and commands differed from each other in the amount of memory used and performance. An interrupt system was introduced in the central processor, and the memory was built according to the block principle.

The first samples of computers of the IBM / 360 family marked the beginning of the third generation 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 about 50 times cheaper and 100 times less productive than the largest IBM / 360-95. The OS/360 modular operating system had levels designed for a wide variety of hardware configurations. Fred Brooks, the chief developer of the OS/360 operating system, compared the importance of its appearance with the importance that the splitting of the atom and the launch of the satellite had.

IBM management invested $5 billion over 4 years in the development of a family with a universal scalable architecture - an amount exceeding the cost of the US government for the implementation of the Manhattan Project and unprecedented for private company times of the 1960s. This project has completely changed industry standards, and the entire computer industry, making the Blue Giant's position in the mainframe markets virtually invulnerable. The logical structure of the System-360 served as the basis for the development in 1967 of the 4Pi family of airborne vehicles and almost a dozen strategic systems. The most famous on-board computers are IBM for spacecraft Gemini and Apollo, and mission control systems vehicles in Houston. In 1969...71, IBM computers ensured the landing of American astronauts on the moon, in 1973 IBM fulfilled an order from NASA for the supply of computer equipment for the Soyuz-Apollo program. Subsequently, IBM also took part in the Space Shuttle flight program.

Owners of the System-360 were able to upgrade hardware and software piecemeal if necessary, resulting in significant cost savings. By the late 1960s, IBM dominated the computer market, with sales of over $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, the production of computers increased significantly and their service life increased. Also in 1973, IBM released a system for automatically reading the price of products using a laser, designed for supermarkets, as well as the IBM 3614 computer, with which bank customers began to conduct account transactions.

In 1980, IBM management made a revolutionary decision to create a personal computer. When it was designed, 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 constituent parts for his offspring, in particular, the microprocessor from Intel and software from Microsoft. The advent of the IBM PC in 1981 gave rise to an avalanche-like demand for personal computers, which have now become a tool of labor for people of various professions. Along with this, there was a huge demand for software and computer peripherals. Hundreds of new firms sprang up on this wave and carved their niches in the computer market.

Present and future of IBM

Despite the great importance of the personal computer market, IBM's interests extend much wider. The corporation's position in the production of mainframes is traditionally strong. In 1995, IBM received a prestigious order from the US government to build the world's most powerful supercomputer for the Livermore Laboratory, a center for nuclear research in the US. In 1996...97, the brainchild of IBM, the Deep Blue chess computer, entered into combat with world chess champion Garry Kasparov. IBM also makes its own microprocessors, and its OS/2 operating system is used by one in three US banks.

IBM is also a leader in the design and manufacture of servers. The IBM eServer iSeries 400 (AS/400) model is the world's most popular business application server. Today, more than 700,000 IBM iSeries 400 (AS/400) systems operate in 150 countries. The IBM iSeries 400 system is uniquely scalable. Junior 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 scale up to 32 processors and serve large organizations.

Research by scientists in IBM science labs goes far beyond purely commercial interests and has implications for the entire world of science. In 1986, IBM employees G. Binnig and G. Rohrer were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the creation of a scanning tunneling microscope, and in 1987, IBM employees J.G. Bednorts 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 a network computer and the development of network technologies as a new strategic direction for the corporation. The first sample 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 the creation of reliable systems for electronic business as its immediate tasks. IBM owns 95% of the ATM software market. As the largest Internet service provider, the company serves more than 30,000 corporate clients in 850 cities in more than 100 countries around the world.

IBM's total revenue in 2002 was $81.2 billion, net income $3.6 billion, assets $96.5 billion, employees 315,889, and patents 3,288.