Samuel J. Palmisano is elected chief executive officer effective March 1, while
remaining president of IBM. In October he is elected chairman of the board,
effective January 1, 2003. (On that date, Palmisano becomes chairman, president
and chief executive officer of IBM.) Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., remains IBM chairman
through the end of 2002.
IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers agree in July that IBM will acquire the former's
global business consulting and technology services unit -- PwC Consulting. Under
the terms of the agreement, IBM will pay PricewaterhouseCoopers an estimated
purchase price of $3.5 billion in cash and stock. The transaction gives IBM an
unmatched capability to help customers solve their business issues and to exploit
world-class technology for improved business performance. The combination creates
a new global business unit, IBM Business Consulting Services -- comprising more
than 30,000 IBM and 30,000 transferring PwC Consulting professionals -- which
becomes part of IBM Global Services. Seen at IBM's headquarters in Armonk, N.Y.,
Samuel J. Palmisano (right) and Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr. (left), chief executive
officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers, congratulate each other on the agreement.
IBM introduces the eServer z800, a lower-priced, entry-class mainframe that
fundamentally changes the economics of mainframe computing. With this move, IBM
delivers for the first time advanced Parallel Sysplex clustering technology to
entry-class mainframe customers.
IBM announces the eServer p650, the world's most powerful eight-way UNIX server.
The p650 is the first server to include IBM's newest 64-bit microprocessor,
POWER4+, and it brings to the midrange the blazing performance and autonomic
computing capabilities of the groundbreaking IBM eServer p690. In addition, IBM
debuts the IBM eServer p655, an ultra dense UNIX server targeted at the high
performance computing market that is capable of reaching half a trillion
operations per second in a single frame in peak processing power.
IBM announces the IBM eServer i890, featuring mainframe-class technology and the
company's game-changing POWER4 microprocessor. The 32-way i890, running the latest
release of the iSeries operating system -- OS/400 Version 5 Release 2 -- nearly
doubles the processing power of the previous top-of-the-line iSeries, the i840,
and delivers enhanced server consolidation capabilities with support for up to 32
OS/400 or Linux dynamic logical partitions.
During 2002, IBM introduces the IBM eServer xSeries 440 with Enterprise
X-Architecture technology. Offering a building block style architecture, the x440
allows customers to pay for computing power incrementally as they need it, and is
designed to support up to 16 processors and 64GB of memory. (IBM begins shipping
the 16-way IBM eServer x440 in volume in December.)
In a classic refinement of its ThinkPad product line and most radical design
change in nearly a decade, IBM adds touch pad technology to the traditional Track
Point. With the innovative new UltraNav available on the new ThinkPad T30 -- a
thin and light mobile computing powerhouse -- users can quickly and easily select
the way they want to work and wander the Web.
Led by prolific inventor Ravi Arimilli (left), IBM leads the world in generating
the most U.S. patents -- with 3,288 -- for the tenth consecutive year, nearly
doubling the output of the second most productive company. In the past decade, IBM
inventors have received a record 22,357 patents, besting the next closest company
by nearly 7,000 patents. Arimilli, an IBM Fellow in Austin, Texas, received
patents for 78 inventions in 2002.
IBM records 1 terabyte (TB) of data to a linear digital tape cartridge, storing 10
times more data than any linear tape cartridge then available. (One terabyte is
equal to 16 days of continuously running DVD movies or 8,000 times more data than
a human brain retains in a lifetime.) The 1 TB initiative had been under
development since April 2001 at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif.,
and IBM storage product development laboratories in San Jose, Calif.; Tucson,
Ariz., and Yamato, Japan. Frank Elliott, IBM's vice president for tape storage
(left), holds the 1 TN cartridge -- the equivalent of more than 1,500 compact
disks.
Law enforcement and fire department officials test the new emergency communication
system that IBM is building for the greater Washington, D.C. Region. The Capital
Wireless Integrated Network will allow local, state and federal agencies in the
District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to communicate with each other in
real-time during crisis situations. The IBM system is intended to help eliminate
the confusion that can plague police, firefighters and other officials hampered by
incompatible communication gear.
