What does it mean when the world’s largest PC manufacturer quits? Some say it’s the death knell for PCs. That may be the case, but only because companies, like HP, are turning tail and running rather than fighting back. Don’t. More »
IBM’s cognitive computing chip functions like a human brain, heralds our demise (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, this is awkward. As the IBM PC celebrates its 30th birthday today, one of its original designers is already mulling the end of its reign. In a blog post penned this week, Mark Dean, IBM’s CTO for the Middle East and Africa, reflected on the dawn of the desktop era and looked forward to its seemingly inevitable demise.
“When I helped design the PC, I didn’t think I’d live long enough to witness its decline. But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they’re no longer at the leading edge of computing. They’re going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.”
Dean added that he’s glad his company sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005, as part of a move that, according to him, allowed IBM to position itself at the forefront of the “post-PC” era. No word yet on when the funeral rites will be held, but you can read the full post at the source link, below.
IBM exec says PC is ‘going the way of the typewriter,’ kills our birthday buzz originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Continue reading The IBM PC turns 30, we hurt our hands giving it birthday punches
The IBM PC turns 30, we hurt our hands giving it birthday punches originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The revolutionary IBM 5150 landed 30 years ago today. It wasn’t the first device of its kind; Xerox PARC already had the Alto “home computer,” for example. But the success of IBM personal computers, particularly the 5150, was what would ultimately transform people’s opinions of computers and spur their adoption.
It would be difficult to overstate the role of the 5150. The PC grew so important and so influential in the years following its arrival that Time chose silicon over carbon in 1983 when it named the computer ”Machine of the Year”.
Today, we celebrate the IBM 5150 and nine other major milestones that helped the personal computer achieve its invaluable, and ubiquitous, place in society.
IBM launched the 5150 PC on Aug. 12, 1981.
It wasn’t much by today’s standards, or even yesterday’s. The 5150 featured a 4.77 MHz 8-to-16 bit Intel 8088 processor. It was less powerful than other processors available from Intel and Motorola, but those were thought to be “too powerful” for a PC. IBM also gave the 5150 a full 64 kilobytes of RAM — expandable to whopping 256 kB — one or two floppy drives (your choice) and a monochromatic display.
The 5150 was developed in less than a year by a team of 12 led by Don Estridge. The project was given the codename “Project Chess” — which we mention only because it sounds so cool — and built using off-the-shelf components.
Depending on how you configured your 5150, you’d shell out anywhere from $1,565 to $6,000 for one. That comes to $4,000 to $15,000 in today’s dollars. The success of the 5150 made the IBM PC the industry standard, and before long a whole bunch of “IBM compatibles” and clones jumped into the burgeoning PC market.
Continue reading IBM and Portland team up to see into city’s future
IBM and Portland team up to see into city’s future originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It seems that IBM and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois have hit a snag in their once fruitful relationship. After nearly four years of partnering for the Blue Waters petascale supercomputer, the NCSA’s recently released a joint statement explaining that IBM’s “terminated” its involvement with the project. If you’ll recall, IBM was supplying its latest Power7 rigs to get all that data flowing, but the company’s now decided that Ol’ Blue will require more resources than initially anticipated. Apparently, there were talks to try and keep the spark alive, but since those fell through both have decided to return each others CDs and hoodies assets involved with the project (per contract terms): IBM gives back the money, while the NCSA returns any hardware supplied. The two plan on remaining in touch for future endeavours, and the NCSA doesn’t appear to be too down either as it’ll be consulting with the National Science Foundation to keep Blue Waters afloat. You’ll find the official statement in the source link below, but we’ve included a video rendition of how we’d like to imagine it past the break.
IBM and NCSA end their Blue Waters affair, go back to just being supercomputing friends originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Imagine all of the waiting rooms and typing classes it’s seen in its half-century on earth. IBM this week is celebrating the 50th birthday of its best-selling Selectric line of office typewriters. First introduced in 1961, the line featured a rotating typeball that increased typing speed and could be changed for italics, symbols, and different fonts and languages. The typewriter also eschewed the traditional moving carriage, with the typeball and ribbon taking on the motion, reducing the unit’s overall size and leaving more space on office desks for family photos and troll dolls. These innovations helped make the line nearly ubiquitous in offices spaces, and in 1964, the Selectric line offered up an early word processor capable of storing characters. IBM would go on to retire the line in 1986. Fittingly, the now defunct typewriter will be honored with its very own postage stamp.
Continue reading IBM Selectric Typewriter turns 50, yells at tablets to get off its lawn
IBM Selectric Typewriter turns 50, yells at tablets to get off its lawn originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This awful diagram doesn’t show it well, but the keys have been resized to fit the user’s fingers
Touch screens look like they’re going to be the default method for most people to input text into their computers. As cellphones and tablets relegate laptops and desktop to the role of “trucks,” we’ll have to un-learn touch typing in favor of primitive hunt-and-peck. Or will we?
IBM has filed a patent that could provide on possible answer. The patent concerns touch-screen calibration. When you first fire up your device, you go through a training stage, only it’s the computer and not you that is being taught. Through a series of tests, it determines how you type, how big your fingers are, and how accurately you hit the keys.
Armed with this information, it then presents you with a custom keyboard, tailored to your own fat (or thin)-fingered paws. In my case, it might stop me typing “M”, “N” or a comma every time I try to hit “space” on my iPad.
Sadly, this is just a patent application, which in the United States means that it is will be used only to add firepower to lawsuits. A real shame, as touch-screen keyboards need all the help they can get.
Touchscreen keyboard morphs to fit your typing style [New Scientist]
Morphing Touchscreen Keyboard Interface (PDF) [Pat2PDF/IBM]
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Someone ought to gift these IBM researchers a better camera, because their latest General Parallel File System is a back-slapping 37 times faster than their last effort back in 2007. The rig combines ten IBM System xSeries servers with Violin Memory SSDs that hold 6.5 terabytes of metadata relating to 10 billion separate files. Every single one of those files can be analyzed and managed using policy-guided rules in under three quarters of an hour. That kind of performance might seem like overkill, but it’s only just barely in step with what IBM’s Doug Balog describes as a “rapidly growing, multi-zettabyte world.” No prizes for guessing who their top customer is likely to be. Full details in the PR after the break.
Continue reading IBM rig doesn’t look like much, scans 10 billion files in 43 minutes
IBM rig doesn’t look like much, scans 10 billion files in 43 minutes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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