IBM Research
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
which later expanded into other research labs in Westchester County, New York
beginning in the 1950s.
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 fast Fourier transform
(FFT), Benoît B. Mandelbrot's
paper introducing fractal
s, Magnetic disk storage (hard disk
s), One-transistor dynamic RAM (DRAM) (Dynamic random access memory
), Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, Relational database
s, and the grandmaster level chess
computer, Deep Blue. IBM Research's several contributions to physical sciences include the scanning tunneling microscope
and high temperature superconductivity. Both these achievements were rewarded with Nobel Prize
s.
IBM Research is involved in many significant collaborative research activities with different academic universities and industrial research laboratories. These include the International Technology Alliance
, the Open Collaborative Research program and the research alliance that developed the DARPA High Performance Computing System.
Division (business)
A division of a business entity is a portion of that business that operates under a different name. It is the equivalent of a corporation or limited liability company obtaining a fictitious name or "doing business as" certificate and operating a business under that fictitious name...
of IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, is a research and advanced development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
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
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
which later expanded into other research labs in Westchester County, New York
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
beginning in the 1950s.
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
Data Encryption Standard
The Data Encryption Standard is a block cipher that uses shared secret encryption. It was selected by the National Bureau of Standards as an official Federal Information Processing Standard for the United States in 1976 and which has subsequently enjoyed widespread use internationally. It is...
(DES), the fast Fourier transform
Fast Fourier transform
A fast Fourier transform is an efficient algorithm to compute the discrete Fourier transform and its inverse. "The FFT has been called the most important numerical algorithm of our lifetime ." There are many distinct FFT algorithms involving a wide range of mathematics, from simple...
(FFT), Benoît B. Mandelbrot's
Benoît Mandelbrot
Benoît B. Mandelbrot was a French American mathematician. Born in Poland, he moved to France with his family when he was a child...
paper introducing fractal
Fractal
A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...
s, Magnetic disk storage (hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
s), One-transistor dynamic RAM (DRAM) (Dynamic random access memory
Dynamic random access memory
Dynamic random-access memory is a type of random-access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. The capacitor can be either charged or discharged; these two states are taken to represent the two values of a bit, conventionally called 0 and 1...
), Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, Relational database
Relational database
A relational database is a database that conforms to relational model theory. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system . Colloquial use of the term "relational database" may refer to the RDBMS software, or the relational database itself...
s, and the grandmaster level chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
computer, Deep Blue. IBM Research's several contributions to physical sciences include the scanning tunneling microscope
Scanning tunneling microscope
A scanning tunneling microscope is an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer , the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. For an STM, good resolution is considered to be 0.1 nm lateral resolution and...
and high temperature superconductivity. Both these achievements were rewarded with Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s.
IBM Research is involved in many significant collaborative research activities with different academic universities and industrial research laboratories. These include the International Technology Alliance
International Technology Alliance
The International Technology Alliance is a research program initiated by the UK Ministry of Defence and the US Army Research Laboratory . The research program is intended to run for 10 years...
, the Open Collaborative Research program and the research alliance that developed the DARPA High Performance Computing System.
United States
- Thomas J. Watson Research CenterThomas J. Watson Research CenterThe Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division.The center is on three sites, with the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, 38 miles north of New York City, a building in Hawthorne, New York, and offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts.- Overview :The...
- Yorktown, New YorkYorktown, New YorkYorktown is a town in Westchester County, New York, in the suburbs of New York about north of midtown Manhattan. The town lies on the north border of Westchester County...
- Hawthorne, New YorkHawthorne, New YorkHawthorne is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York. The population was 4,586 at the 2010 census.-History:...
- Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
- Yorktown, New York
- Almaden Research CenterAlmaden Research CenterThe IBM Almaden Research Center is in San Jose, California, and is one of IBM's nine worldwide research labs. Its scientists perform basic and applied research in computer science, services, storage systems, physical sciences, and materials science and technology. The center opened in 1986, and...
, San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose, CaliforniaSan 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... - Austin Research Lab, TexasTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
International
IBM Research also has laboratories in:- IBM China Research LaboratoryIBM China Research LaboratoryIBM China Research Laboratory is one of the IBM's eighth major worldwide research laboratories. It was established in 1995 Shangdi District, in the northwest of Beijing, China.-Bibliography:*-External links:*...
- IBM Haifa Research LaboratoryIBM Haifa Research LaboratoryIBM Haifa Research Laboratory is located in Haifa, Israel. It is one of several IBM R&D Labs in Israel.IBM Haifa Research Laboratory handles projects in the spheres of cloud computing , healthcare and life sciences, verification technologies , multimedia, event processing , information retrieval...
, HaifaHaifaHaifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher... - IBM India Research LaboratoryIBM India Research LaboratoryIBM India Research Laboratory is one of the IBM's eighth major worldwide research laboratories. It was established in 1998 in Delhi, India.Some of the aims of the laboratory are to develop solutions for digital data, computers and mobile phones....
- IBM Tokyo Research LaboratoryIBM Tokyo Research LaboratoryThe IBM Research - Tokyo, which was called before January 2009 IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory , is one of IBM's eight major worldwide research laboratories. It is a branch of IBM Research...
- IBM Zurich Research LaboratoryIBM Zurich Research LaboratoryIBM Research - Zurich is the European branch of IBM Research and has been located in Rüschlikon, near Zurich, Switzerland since 1962.-Overview and history:...
, RüschlikonRüschlikonRüschlikon is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is located on the west shore of Lake Zurich.- Coat of arms :Its coat of arms features a white shield with a seerose, a red flower with a yellow center....
, ZurichZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich... - IBM Australia Research Laboratory
Past
Notable previous IBM Research laboratories:- Cambridge Scientific CenterCambridge Scientific CenterThe IBM Cambridge Scientific Center, established in February 1964 by Norm Rasmussen, was situated at 545 Technology Square , Cambridge, Massachusetts in the same building as MIT's Project MAC...
- IBM New York Scientific CenterIBM New York Scientific CenterIBM New York Scientific Center was a research facility in downtown Manhattan. It was a source of computer science research for several decades, and had considerable published output....
External links
- Official website
- Projects
- Research History Highlights (Top Innovations)
- Research history by year
- Oral history interview with Martin Schwarzschild head of Watson Scientific Computation Laboratory at Columbia University, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota
- IBM Research's technical journals