IBM a century later, looking back at 100 years

This coming June 16, IBM will be celebrating its 100th year milestone as a corporation. Yes, it’s already a century since IBM started making lives easier through the use of innovative technology. Here in the Philippines, they are a year away from celebrating 75 years.

Interested in some IBM facts other than the meaning of IBM? In case you find yourself in an IT trivia game, these factoids about IBM could help you. Nevertheless, a true geek would find these interesting.

• 1911 – IBM was formed as as the Computing Tabulating and Recording Company, or C-T-R. They specialize in punch cards, commercial scales and clocks.
• 1912 – First overseas subsidiary opened in UK.
• 1924 – C-T-R changed its name to International Business Machines.
• 1928 ““ The IBM Punch Card became the industry standard for storing and recording data; it propelled IBM into forefront of data processing and became an icon of the Information Age.
• 1932 – IBM surpassed 100 patents in a single year for the first time. Today, IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. company.
• 1933 ““ A 40 work week was established. Wow, I didn’t know this workforce policy originated from IBM.
• 1939 – IBM demonstrates the Radiotype, whose instantaneous communications between distant locations could be seen as an early form of e-mail at 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
• 1944 ““ IBM’s first large scale computer. Known as Mark I, the ASCC was first machine to handle long calculations automatically. More than 50 feet long, eight feet high, and weighing almost five tons, it used electromechanical relays to perform addition, multiplication, division.
• 1948 – IBM developed the 604 Electronic Calculating Punch, the first commercially successful electronic calculator.
• 1952 – Company introduced the IBM 701, which paved the way for computers built for specific business and industrial purposes.
• 1960 ““ The ESCape key was introduced to computer keyboard.
• 1963 ““ IBM labs produced the barcode.
• 1971 – Invention of the floppy disk — the world’s first flexible, magnetic media that made storage powerful and affordable and spurred the PC revolution.
• 1975 – IBM introduced the first portable computer, the 5100.
• 1981 – IBM Personal Computer launched the PC revolution.
• 1992 – IBM introduced the ThinkPad, which became an instant design icon.
• 1995 – IBM discovered magnetic materials that made rewritable CDs possible.
• 1997 – Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated the best player in the world, in six games.
• 2004 ““ IBM’s PC Business was sold to Lenovo
• 2007 – IBM reduced traffic and pollution with road charging system for Stockholm, now used in Brisbane, Singapore, London.

There’s a lot more happening each year for 100 years, but they’re too geeky for me to write here.

In 2011, IBM marks 100 years of innovation – what’s next? Holograms jumping out of your cell phone. “œRacetrack” memory that will hold thousands of movies in a handheld device. Concentrated photovoltaics to convert the sun’s rays into high-density electrical power. Cell phone batteries that self-charge by breathing air. Machine vision to help computers understand what they see, such as a crime being committed. Cloud computing used to connect thousands of health care records. And more.