The appointment of John R. Opel as CEO in 1981 coincided with the beginning of a
new era in computing. Thanks to the birth of the IBM Personal Computer or PC, the
IBM brand began to enter homes, small business and schools.
Though not a spectacular machine by technological standards, the IBM PC brought
together all of the most desirable features of a computer into one small machine.
It offered 16 kilobytes of user memory (expandable to 256 kilobytes), one or two
floppy disks and an optional color monitor. When designing the PC, IBM for the
first time contracted the production of its components to outside companies. The
processor chip came from Intel and the operating system, called DOS (Disk
Operating System) came from a 32-person company called Microsoft.
John F. Akers became CEO in 1985 and focused on streamlining operations and
redeploying resources. During Akers' tenure, IBM's significant investment in
research produced four Nobel Prize winners in physics, achieved breakthroughs in
mathematics, memory storage and telecommunications, and made great strides in
expanding computing capabilities.
The IBM token-ring local area network, introduced in 1985, permitted personal
computer users to exchange information and share printers and files within a
building or complex. With the further development of the computer, IBM laid a
foundation for network computing and numerous other applications.
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IBM introduces the IBM 3081 processor, the company's most powerful to date, which
features Thermal Conduction Modules. In 1990, the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, Inc. awards its 1990 Corporate Innovation Recognition to
IBM for the development of the Multilayer Ceramic Thermal Conduction Module for
high performance computers.
IBM develops the experimental 801, based on the Reduced Instruction Set Computer
(RISC) architecture developed by IBM researcher John Cocke. RISC technology
greatly boosts computer speed by using simplified machine instructions for
frequently used functions. It is the basis of most workstations in use today and
is widely viewed as the computing architecture of the future.
IBM President John R. Opel is elected chief executive officer, effective January
1, 1981; Frank T. Cary continues as Chairman of the Board.
IBM Japan commemorates the 55th anniversary of business in Japan, and the 30th
anniversary of the resumption of operations after World War II.
Among the other products announced in 1980 are the Distributed Office System,
which expands information processing capability of the IBM 8100 to include text
and word processing; the 5120, a new desktop computer; and the Displaywriter, a
low-cost, easy-to-use desktop text processing system.
IBM Instruments Inc., a new subsidiary, introduces a line of analytical
instruments.
The first IBM Product Centers in the United States open in Philadelphia and
Baltimore. Seven additional IBM Product Centers open in Europe and South America.
IBM researchers use a computer to transcribe human speech drawn from a 1,000-word
vocabulary. Text is read and converted to print form with 91 percent accuracy.
The Management Development Center in Armonk and 1.7 million square feet of space
in Tucson, Arizona, are completed.
