IBM Research

From Free net encyclopedia

IBM Research, a division of IBM, is a research and advanced development organization and currently consists of eight locations throughout the world and hundreds of projects. Its origins can be traced to the establishment in 1945 of the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory at Columbia University.

Some major activities include the invention of innovative materials and structures, high-performance microprocessors and computers, analytical methods and tools, algorithms, software architectures, and methods for managing, searching and deriving meaning from data.

Among their most famous past developments are the Data Encryption Standard (DES), the classical computer language Formula Translation System (FORTRAN), Benoit B. Mandelbrot's paper introducing Fractals, Magnetic disk storage (Hard Disks), One-transistor dynamic RAM (DRAM) (Dynamic random access memory), Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, and Relational databases. IBM Research's several contributions to physical sciences include Scanning Probe Microscopy and high temperature super conductivity. Both these achievements were rewarded with Nobel Prizes.

Their locations in the United States include the Thomas J. Watson Research Center (with locations in Yorktown, New York, Hawthorne, New York, and Cambridge, Massachusetts), the Almaden Research Center (California) and the Austin Research Lab (Texas). Internationally, IBM Research also has laboratories in Zürich, Haifa, Tokyo, Beijing, and Delhi.