Almaden Research Center
Encyclopedia
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, and is one of IBM's nine worldwide research labs. Its scientists perform basic and applied research in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, services, storage systems, physical sciences, and materials science and technology. The center opened in 1986, and continues the research started in San Jose more than fifty years ago. Nearly all of Almaden’s approximately 500 research employees are in technical functions and more than half of these hold Ph.D.s. The lab is home to ten IBM Fellow
IBM Fellow
An IBM Fellow is an appointed position at IBM made by IBM’s CEO. Typically only 4 to 9 IBM Fellows are appointed each year, at the annual Corporate Technical Recognition Event in May or June. It is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve.The IBM Fellows program...
s, ten IBM Distinguished Engineers, nine IBM Master Inventor
IBM Master Inventor
An IBM Master Inventor is an individual selected by IBM. The qualification and appointment to Master Inventor is governed by the value to IBM of an inventor's contribution to the patent portfolio, and through defensive publication...
s and seventeen members of the IBM Academy of Technology.
Almaden is located at 650 Harry Road on nearly 700 acres (2.8 km²) of land in the hills above Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. The site was chosen because of its close proximity to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, UC Berkeley and other collaborative academic institutions. Research at the lab is organized into four areas: Science and Technology, Computer Science, Storage Systems, and Service Research.
Science and technology
The Science and Technology center develops new technologies that are critical to IBM’s business and that enable a deeper understanding of the underlying science. One focus is on chemical materials and processes, such as advanced photo-resists for high-resolution lithography and dielectric materials. A second set of programs explores new materials and concepts for future technologies, such as nonvolatile memory cells based on magnetic-tunnel-junctions or organic electronics. Almaden scientists also conduct research in scientific areas aimed at expanding knowledge for continued growth of the IT industry's core technologies and to create the base for new IT paradigms. The lab is home to the specialized Scanning Tunneling Microscope that IBM Fellow Don Eigler built and then used to position individual atoms in 1989. Almaden scientists have made advances in nanotechnology, magnetic thin films, spin physics, quantum computing, quantum cryptography and the computer simulation of biological molecules and materials dynamics.Computer Science
The Computer Science center provides technologies and solutions for computing, data management and internet applications. Research areas include advanced database solutions, middleware systems and technology for knowledge management, user design for human-computer interaction, Web technologies, content managementContent management
Content management, or CM, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. In recent times this information is typically referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content...
, services-oriented architectures and e-commerce, e-utilities and computer science principles and methodologies. The group's core strengths include data management, knowledge management and content management. They have created helpdesk solutions, search technologies, knowledge management solutions, human-computer interaction solutions, cryptography protocols, data mining algorithms and more.
Storage systems
The Storage Systems center conducts research in storage appliances, controllers and networks, storage and systems management software and parallel file systems. Storage systems are increasingly becoming central to the emerging world of connected networks and pervasive devices. Storage requirements are growing at an explosive rate and, increasingly, they must provide high performance and 24/7 availability, along with low total cost of ownership. Some estimate that 70 percent of future IT spending will go toward storage systems. The group has made significant contributions to IBM products such as Shark and IBM Tivoli Storage ManagerIBM Tivoli Storage Manager
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager is a centralized, policy-based, enterprise class, data backup and recovery package. The software enables the user to insert objects not only via backup, but also through space management and archive tools...
, helped create the iSCSI
ISCSI
In computing, iSCSI , is an abbreviation of Internet Small Computer System Interface, an Internet Protocol -based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage...
industry standard and invented the technologies underlying the IBM SAN Volume Controller
IBM SAN Volume Controller
In computer data storage, the IBM SAN Volume Controller is a block storage virtualization appliance that belongs to the IBM System Storage product family. SVC implements an indirection, or "virtualization", layer in a Fibre Channel storage area network .- Architecture :SVC is always deployed as a...
and IBM Scale-out File Services products including the IBM General Parallel File System.
Service research
The Service research center studies the human side of doing business, addressing the large-scale, people- and information-intensive challenges that enterprises face in today’s global economy. Service researchers span a variety of disciplines including computer science, economics, anthropology and sociology.IBM has joined with other corporations and universities to develop a new academic curriculum, Service Science, Management and Engineering
Service Science, Management and Engineering
Service science, management, and engineering is a term introduced by IBM to describe service science, an interdisciplinary approach to the study, design, and implementation of services systems – complex systems in which specific arrangements of people and technologies take actions that provide...
(SSME).