International Business Machines
International Business Machines (usually shortened to IBM) is a company which has played a decisive role in the history of computing.
Its roots go back to the early days of mechanical devices used for business purposes in the early punched card era. It was formed by the merger in June, 1911, of several smaller companies, including Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company, and several time-card companies. Initially named the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, it was renamed IBM in February, 1924.
Some notable contributions by IBM to the world of computing:
- System/360 and System/370 mainframe systems
- The SNA networking protocol of the IBM mainframes
- The IBM PC personal computer, model for the now-ubiquitous IBM-compatible PC
- MCA Micro Channel Architecture
- The RS/6000 line of Unix minicomputers
- The AS/400 line of minicomputers
- OS/2 IBM & Microsoft's failed sucessor to MS-DOS
- The SQL language, popularized by IBM databases.
Lore
The old IBM had a song book, of various anthems for products and crushing their competition which at the time would have been NCR.
IBM also made famous DASD and other acronyms.
Perhaps the most famous of all IBM'ism is the "This page is intentionally left blank" pages scattered throughout their manuals.
Further reading
- Robert Sobel, I. B. M.: Colossus in Transition, Times Books, New York, 1981
- Emerson W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 1995
