U.S. Vice President Al Gore announces Blue Pacific - the world's fastest computer
- which is jointly developed by the U.S. Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory and IBM, can perform 3.9 trillion calculations per second
(15,000 times faster than the average desktop computer) and has over 2.6 trillion
bytes of memory (80,000 times more than the average PC). It would take a person
using a calculator 63,000 years to perform as many calculations as this computer
can perform in a single second.
IBM powers the official Nagano Olympic Winter Games Web Site, which registers an
unprecedented total of nearly 650 million hits from around the world over the
course of the 16-day event. The Guiness Book of Records officially recognizes IBM
for setting two world records in Internet traffic on the 1998 Nagano Olympic
Winter Games Web site: "The Most Popular Internet Event Ever Recorded" and, with
110,414 hits, "The Most Hits On An Internet Site in One Minute."
IBM acquires CommQuest Technologies, Inc., a company that designs and markets
advanced semiconductors for wireless communications applications, such as cellular
phones and satellite communications. CommQuest becomes a unit of IBM's
Microelectronics Division.
IBM and AT&T announce in December a series of strategic agreements under which
AT&T will acquire IBM's Global Network business for $5 billion in cash, and the
two companies will enter into outsourcing agreements with each other. IBM will
outsource a significant portion of its networking needs to AT&T, and AT&T will
outsource certain applications processing and data center management operations to
IBM.
IBM introduces the IBM S/390 - Generation 5 (G5) server, the most powerful S/390
computing system; IBM says the S/390 G5 Parallel Enterprise Server 10-way Turbo
model has smashed the 1,000 MIPS barrier, making it the world's most powerful
mainframe. The company ships its 1,000th S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server -
Generation 5 - less than 100 days after G5 manufacturing began, marking the
largest ramp-up in S/390 history.
The U.S. National Weather Service selects IBM to provide an IBM RS/6000 SP - more
than 10 times more powerful than the system made famous during Deep Blue's 1997
victory over chess Grand Master Garry Kasparov - to improve the agency's national
weather and climate forecasting capabilities.
The AS/400e server 170 and AS/400e server 150 are introduced. During 1998, IBM
delivers an AS/400 to a customer every 12 minutes of every workday.
Other 1998 personal system announcements include: the PC 300GL based on the Intel
Celeron processor; Aptiva E76, the first model of the Aptiva E Series to be
powered by an Intel Pentium II processor; Aptiva E86, the first member of the E
Series to feature DVD technology; and the ThinkPad i Series, IBM's first mobile
computer line designed exclusively for consumers.
IBM introduces its Home Director Professional solution, providing consumers with
an intelligent link between commonly available home systems, such as security,
lighting and HVAC systems.
During the year, IBM sets repeated records in hard disk drive storage densities,
culminating with a world record drive for notebook computers - holding 14.1
gigabits per square inch, or a trail of paper more than 1,200 miles long. In
addition, the Microdrive is introduced as the world's smallest and lightest hard
disk drive. With a disk platter the size of a large coin and weighing less than an
AA battery, it can hold 340Mb, or the equivalent of 200 standard size floppy
disks.
To mark the 100th anniversary of magnetic recording, IBM announces the IBM
Deskstar 25GP as the world's highest capacity hard drive for desktop PCs. The
first disk drive in 1956 had a capacity of 5 megabytes; the Deskstar 25GP has
5,000 times the capacity of that first drive.
Online sales of IBM products reach $38 million a day.
For the fourth consecutive year, IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club
collaborate to produce the official Wimbleton Web site, which records over 224
million server hits during the 1998 Championships. The official Web site of the
1998 French Open tennis championships, designed and hosted by IBM, recording 146.9
million server hits during the two-week tournament in June. Then in September, the
official 1998 U.S Open Web site, powered by IBM for U.S. Tennis Association,
records 382 million hits during the two-week tournament
Other IBM e-business and network computing announcements during 1998 include: the
industry's premier system security for conducting business over the Internet
encompassing a hardware/software solution integrated with IBM's flagship
enterprise operating system, OS/390, and IBM S/390 Parallel Enterprise servers -
Generation 3 (G3) and Generation 4 (G4); and Home Page Reader for Windows, a
talking Web browser that opens the World Wide Web with spoken Internet access to
blind and visually impaired users.
CBS News selects the IBM News Archive Application to manage the entire digital and
physical assets of its vast broadcast archive, and the WB Television Network picks
IBM to provide an integrated distribution and spot insertion solution for its WeB
Division.
Among the other 1998 product announcements are: the T55, the first sub-$1,000
15-inch active matrix Thin Film Transisitor flat panel monitor; the T85 18-inch
active matrix Thin Film Transistor flat panel monitor; and the IdeaScan scanner.
IBM delivers the world's first copper-based microprocessors, including a PowerPC
740/750 operating on 400MHz. Microprocessors that incorporate copper wiring boost
chip performance by about one-third.
IBM becomes the first company to introduce silicon germanium chip-making
technology into mainstream manufacturing, offering the first SiGe-based standard
products for use in wireless communications products such as cell phones and
pagers. SiGe chips provide high performance and less power consumption with lower
cost, helping to usher in new breeds of network appliance devices for personal
communication.
IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., attends CeBit '98 in Hanover, Germany, in
March, and provides IBM's first in-depth discussion of deep computing (emerging
computer systems that combine ultrafast processing with sophisticated analytical
software) and pervasive computing (tiny intelligent processing devices embedded in
the global fabric of computing and communications) as important emerging
technology trends and the natural extensions of networked computing.
For the sixth year in a row, IBM receives the most U.S. patents - 2,658 - which is
733 more than the number two company and 40 percent more than IBM won last year.
IBM becomes the first company ever to break the 2,000 U.S. patent issuance barrier
in a single year. IBM now owns more than 30,000 patents worldwide, including
14,000 in the United States. IBM has 2,900 researchers worldwide.
IBM perfects the Silicon-on-Insulator process for building high-speed transistors
that enhance chip speed by up to 35 percent and reduce power requirements by up to
66 percent.
IBM researchers demonstrate the world's first experimental CMOS microprocessor
that can operate at one billion cycles per second (1GHz).
IBM says that it has become the first international provider of e-business
services in China and the company announces major initiatives with China Telecom
to jointly develop other technology-based operational solutions for China's
telecommunications industry. Two months after that, IBM reports strategic
agreements with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry and key business
partners to expand the development and use of e-business solutions, based on IBM's
Network Computing Framework and Java technology, in China.
IBM and STMicroelectronics announce a joint effort to accelerate development of
advanced system-on-a-chip products.
The company says that it has formed a partnership with Voice Control Systems,
Inc., to marry the power of advanced speech recognition with the telephone.
The company reports a $20 million expansion of its operations in China, with the
unveiling of a new plant for manufacturing hard disk drive magnetoresistive (MR)
heads. The plant willl be operated by the Shenzhen IBM Technology Products Co.,
Ltd., a new company which is fully-owned by IBM.
U.S. President Bill Clinton presents IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., with the
first Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership in recognition of the company's
long-standing commitment to workforce diversity.
IBM announces in August a $1 million investment in Ireland's school system as part
of its global Reinventing Education program. Ireland is the first European country
to be selected as an IBM Reinventing Education partner. IBM's Reinventing
Education initiative - which is recognized in a Harvard Business School case study
as a model for corporate philanthropy in education - contributes more than $35
million to 15 school districts and six states in the United States alone, and is
expanded in 1998 to include projects in Brazil, Canada, Columbia, India, Ireland,
Italy and Vietnam.
IBM and the United Way of America launch the KidSmart Early Learning Program, a
project to install computer learning centers in more than 1,000 nonprofit
preschool sites across the United States.
As part of its $3.5 million commitment to support the development of Internet2,
IBM announces the names of seven higher education institutions that will receive
resources through the company's sponsored research program. Donated resources will
be in the form of hardware, software, switches and other pieces of network
infrastructure critical to Internet2 applications, connections and operation.
IBM establishes a computer training center in Novi Sad, the capital of the
northern province Vojvodina, in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to train
refugees of the region who lost their homes during the war.
