History of IBM Developments

1956 - FIRST MAGNETIC HARD DISK. IBM introduces the world's first magnetic hard disk for data storage. RAMAC (or Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) offers unprecedented performance by permitting random access to any of the million characters distributed over both sides of 50 two-foot-diameter disks. Produced in San Jose, California, IBM's first hard disk stored about 2,000 bits of data per square inch and had a purchase price of about $10,000 per megabyte. By 1997, the cost of storing a megabyte had dropped to around ten cents.

1957 - FORTRAN. IBM revolutionizes programming with the introduction of FORTRAN (Formula Translator). Created by John Backus, it soon becomes the most widely used computer programming language for technical work. For the first time, engineers and scientists can write computer programs in more natural forms, such as C=A/B rather than as strings of "machine language: 1s and 0s.

1997 - DEEP BLUE. The 32-node IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer, Deep Blue, defeated World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in the first known instance of a computer vanquishing a world champion chess player in tournament-style competition. Also after years of teamwork among Research and Microelectronics divisions, IBM introduced the CMOS 7S process, which allowed manufacturers to use copper wires to link transistors in computer chips instead of relying on traditional aluminum interconnects; a revolutionary advance in semiconductor technology.



Thursday, October 4, 2012


SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc shares set an all-time high on Monday, with the Web giant's reliable advertising business back in vogue among Wall Street investors disenchanted with younger social media companies.
The stock reached $748.90 US in afternoon trading, inching past a previous record set in November 2007 of $747.24. It traded below $300 in 2009 during the global economic crisis and remained under pressure in the ensuing years as investors worried that Google's best years were behind it.
The world's No.1 search engine, which generated $38 billion in revenue last year, now looks increasingly attractive compared with a new crop of social Web companies, analysts say.
Facebook Inc, as well as once-hot companies Zynga Inc and Groupon Inc, came to the public markets amid sky-high expectations during the past year, but have fallen out of favor on concerns about their future business prospects.
"The markets have to come to appreciate that Google's been making money hand over fist all this time," said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group.
Google's lucrative search advertising business, as well as its efforts expanding into display and mobile advertising, have helped the company maintain robust revenue growth.
In contrast, Facebook faces much more uncertainty.
"It's so new that there's a lack of data points for anyone to point to," Wieser said.
AT THE HELM
The stock was up almost 2% at $748.20 in early afternoon trade. It has surged roughly 27% since mid-July, compared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average's roughly 6% gain and a 9.5% rise on the Nasdaq.
But at roughly 17 times expected 2012 earnings, it still trades at a hefty discount to Facebook's roughly 47 price-earnings multiple.
Google's rising stock price comes about a year-and-a-half after co-founder Larry Page returned to the chief executive's role, replacing Eric Schmidt, who had the helm of the Web company for the previous decade.
Page has moved aggressively to pare the company's sprawling portfolio of products, eliminating projects involving green energy and health among others, while stepping up Google's social networking efforts.
But many of the challenges that pressured its stock in the past have not gone away. The company's ability to manage the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility -- Google's first major foray into the lower-margin hardware business -- remains unproven.
And Google is now facing significant regulatory scrutiny around the world, including antitrust investigations in the United States and in Europe.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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