History of IBM Research 2001
Paul Horn, senior vice president of IBM Research, has called upon the information technology industry and academic community to rally around the next wave in computing -- autonomic computing. This concept states that computing should work more like our autonomic nervous system, which regulates the body's basic functions without a person being aware. IBM believes that if the IT industry wants to take computing to the next revolutionary level, computers must demonstrate an ability to regulate and manage themselves in a manner similar to the autonomic nervous system. Computer systems are too complex, and there are just too many operations taking place for individual human administrators to oversee.
IBM researchers built the world's first array of transistors out of carbon nanotubes -- tiny cylinders of carbon atoms that measure about 10 atoms across, are 500 times smaller than today's silicon-based transistors and are 1,000 times stronger than steel. The breakthrough bypasses the slow process of manipulating individual nanotubes one-by-one, and is more suitable for a future manufacturing process. This achievement is an important step in finding materials that can be used to build computer chips when silicon-based chips cannot be made any smaller.
Another advancement was made using carbon nanotubes to replace silicon in chips. IBM researchers announced they created and demonstrated the world's first logic-performing computer circuit within a single molecule, which may someday lead to a new class of smaller and faster computers that consume less power than today's machines. The IBM team made a "voltage inverter" -- one of the three fundamental logic circuits that are the basis for all of today's computers -- from a carbon nanotube, a tube-shaped molecule of carbon atoms that is 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The Jikes Research Virtual Machine (RVM) was released under the open-source Common Public License. The Jikes RVM, available now through developerWorks, was designed to execute Java*** programs that are typically used in research on fundamental virtual machine design issues. It will provide academic and research communities with a flexible testbed to prototype new virtual machine technologies and experiment with a large variety of design alternatives. The Jikes RVM runs on AIX*/PowerPC*, Linux**/PowerPC and Linux/IA-32 platforms and includes state-of-the-art virtual machine technologies for dynamic compilation, adaptive optimization, garbage collection, thread scheduling and synchronization.
IBM Research demonstrated Linux running on the IBM 4758 secure cryptographic coprocessor, a hardware security module. It is the first general purpose operating system (OS) running on a secure coprocessor. The IBM 4758 cryptographic coprocessor is an advanced, tamper-sensing and responding, programmable PCI card. Its specialized cryptographic electronics, along with a microprocessor, memory and random number generator are housed within a tamper-responding environment to provide a highly secure subsystem in which data processing and cryptography can be performed. By running Linux, it enables much easier migration and porting of applications into the secure environment than with the current CP/Q operating system.
Mark Dean, VP of systems research, was named to coordinate the low-power initiative on a worldwide basis for IBM. This initiative will improve the energy efficiency of information technology for enterprises and consumers. IBM has also established a low-power consulting practice and is accelerating the development of ultra-low power components and power-efficient servers, storage systems, personal computers and ThinkPad notebook computers, among others. The new consulting practice helps customers evaluate the power requirements of their technology infrastructures and assess cost-effective alternatives.
IBM is first to mass-produce computer hard disk drives using a revolutionary new type of magnetic coating -- "pixie dust" -- that is eventually expected to quadruple the data density of current hard disk drive products. The key to IBM's new data storage breakthrough is a three-atom-thick layer of the element ruthenium, a precious metal similar to platinum, sandwiched between two magnetic layers. Known technically as "antiferromagnetically-coupled (AFC) media," the new multilayer coating is expected to permit hard disk drives to store 100 billion bits (gigabits) of data per square inch of disk area by 2003.
"Strained Silicon," a breakthrough method to alter silicon, is expected to boost chip speeds by up to 35 percent. This new technology takes advantage of the natural tendency for atoms inside compounds to align with one another. When silicon is deposited on top of a substrate with atoms spaced farther apart, the atoms in silicon stretch to line up with the atoms beneath, stretching -- or "straining" -- the silicon. In the strained silicon, electrons experience less resistance and flow up to 70 percent faster, which can lead to chips that are up to 35 percent faster -- without having to shrink the size of transistors.
The world's fastest silicon-based transistor was announced and is expected to drive communications chips to speeds of 100GHz within two years -- five times faster and four years sooner than recently-announced competitive approaches. The transistor uses a modified design and IBM's proven silicon germanium (SiGe) technology to reach speeds of 210 Gigahertz (GHz) while drawing just a milliamp of electrical current. This represents an 80 percent performance improvement and a 50 percent reduction in power consumption over current designs.
IBM Research demonstrated the industry's first automated auditing tool that can monitor 802.11 wireless networks and collect security-related information, allowing system administrators to take proper actions to improve network security. The Wireless Security Auditor, a prototype application running on Linux, enables network administrators to find vulnerable access points by monitoring and analyzing them in real time, and ensuring they are either corrected or removed.
