Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

IIBMInternational Business Machines is familiarly known asIBM (which is its NYSE symbol) or the nickname “BigBlue.” Arguably it is the world’s oldest information technologycompany, with its roots in card tabulation andother business machines in the late 19th century (seeHollerith, Hermann and punched cards and papertape). Under president Thomas J. Watson Sr., IBM developedwhat would become known as the “IBM card” andmachinery to manage the huge amounts of data requiredby the U.S. Social Security system starting in the mid-1930s. However, IBM would later be criticized for providingthe same technology to Nazi Germany, where it wouldbe used to help round up Jews for the Holocaust. On theother hand, IBM calculating machines were a very necessarypart of the Allied war effort, including the developmentof the atomic bomb.In the 1950s, cold war–related defense work gave IBMaccess to new technologies, including the multiuser, realtimearchitecture needed for the SAGE air defense computer(see government funding of computer research.)Despite UNIVAC’s head start, IBM dominated the commercialcomputer industry from the mid-1950s at least untilthe 1970s (see mainframe). The keystone product was theIBM/360 and later IBM/370 mainframe systems. IBM didnot sell just hardware: It provided complete solutions inthe form of hardware, operating systems, other software,and peripherals. Because of its dominance, it was hard forsmall innovators to gain traction, and many people in theuniversity hacker culture felt about IBM as many of theirdescendants feel about Microsoft today. (IBM’s dress codewith its dark suits reassured business managers but addedto the company’s conformist image.)RetrenchmentIBM went on to set the standard for the most common typeof personal computer in the 1980s (see ibm pc). However,the decade would also bring a gradual decline of IBM’sdominant role. On the desktop, IBM quickly outpaced Apple(despite the latter’s innovation—see Macintosh). However,it became legally possible and profitable to build “clone”PCs that could run the same software as the IBM PC, andoften faster and at lower cost. In the 1990s the growinguse of networks of increasingly powerful desktop machineswould erode the mainframe market. Finally, in 2004 IBMsold its PC business (including the well-regarded Thinkpadseries of laptops) to Lenovo, a Chinese company.Today IBM remains a major seller of computer serversparticularly targeted to Internet businesses. The companyhas also achieved success through designing chipsfor videogame units (see game consoles). However,the company’s overall focus is mainly on business consulting,software (including database and collaborativeproducts), management services, and the exploitation ofits vast trove of patents. IBM has also enthusiasticallyembraced open software and contributed a considerableamount of code to the programming community, such asthe Eclipse program development system (see Linux andopen source).IBM remains the largest computer-related company(after HP). In 2007 the company earned $7 billion on revenueof $98.8 billion.235