Research history highlights

Blue Gene/L
The BlueGene team unveiled a computer roughly the size of a standard dishwasher that ranked as the 73rd most powerful supercomputer in the world.

With a peak speed of two teraflops (two trillion mathematical operations per second), an initial small-scale prototype of IBM's Blue Gene/L supercomputer was ranked as a world-leader, even though it occupies a mere half-rack of space, about one cubic meter.

The full Blue Gene/L machine, which is being built for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, will be 128 times larger, occupying 64 full racks. When completed in 2005, IBM expects Blue Gene/L to lead the Top500 supercomputer list. Compared with today’s fastest supercomputers, it will be six times faster, consume 1/15th the power per computation and be 10 times more compact than today’s fastest supercomputers.

On Demand Innovation Services
On Demand Innovation Services worked in partnership with IBM consultants on various customer engagements worldwide. Working with one of the largest limousine service companies in the U.S., ODIS researchers developed a feet optimization system that uses advanced mathematical models. It helped the company improve productivity 20 percent and increase sales about 10 percent in 2003.

Almaden Institute on privacy in data systems
The explosive advances in processor power, storage capacity and network connectivity is enabling the creation of unprecedented quantities of digital information. Experts estimate that the amount of data in the world is doubling every 20 months. This escalating figure is raising concerns about privacy for data systems. This meeting identified and explored the issues surrounding privacy and data systems and charted a path for the future of research in this area. The program brought together more than 100 scientists, technologists and industry experts to critically examine a variety of specific industry initiatives, real-world case studies and international legislation and policies, and review the legal and ethical perspectives around privacy for data systems.

Business-Technology Coevolution Symposium
This symposium brought together business and IT researchers and practitioners to share and exchange perspectives on the coevolution of business and technology innovations. Specifically, it examined the three topic areas of "disruptions," "key advancements," and "challenges" from the perspectives of history, definitions, and projections. Participants at the symposium explored collaboration opportunities and ways to advance deeper understanding and theories of the coevolution of technology-business innovation.

IBM and Factiva join forces to transform global content business
IBM and Factiva^TM, a Dow Jones and Reuters company, announced on September 18, 2003, an agreement to co-develop text analytics solutions built on the IBM WebFountain platform. These new solutions will allow executives tasked with increasing brand equity to gain insight, manage risk, and, perhaps most importantly, identify the next business opportunities more quickly and cost effectively than ever.

IBM scientists create world's smallest solid-state light emitter
This research breakthrough - the first electrically controlled, single-molecule light emitter - demonstrated the rapidly improving understanding of molecular devices. The results also suggested that the unique attributes of carbon nanotubes may be applicable to optoelectronics, which is the basis for the high-speed communications industry.

IBM's previous work on the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes has helped establish carbon nanotubes as a top candidate to replace silicon when current chip features can't be made any smaller. Carbon nanotubes are tube-shaped molecules that are 50,000 times thinner than an average human hair. IBM scientists expect this achievement to spark additional research and interest in the use of carbon nanotubes in nanoscale electronic and photonic (light-based) devices.

IBM, Infineon develop most advanced MRAM technology to date
IBM and Infineon Technologies developed the most advanced Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) technology to date by integrating magnetic memory components into a high-performance logic base.

This development could accelerate the commercialization of MRAM, a breakthrough memory technology with the potential to begin replacing some of today's memory technologies as early as 2005. MRAM could lead to "instant-on" computers, allowing users to turn computers on and off as quickly as a light switch.

IBM and Infineon presented their high-speed 128Kbit MRAM core at the VLSI Symposia in Kyoto, Japan. It is fabricated with a 0.18 micron logic-based process technology, the smallest size reported to date for MRAM technology. This small base enabled the two companies to incorporate the smallest MRAM memory-cell size of 1.4 square microns, which is about 20 million times smaller than the average pencil eraser top. By accurately patterning the magnetic structures within this small cell, researchers were able to control the memory reading and writing operations.

A memory technology that uses magnetic, rather than electronic, charges to store bits of data, MRAM could significantly improve portable computing products by storing more information, accessing it fater and using less battery power than the electronic memory used today. MRAM combines the best features of today's common memory technologies: the storage capacity and low cost of Dynamic RAM (DRAM), the high speed of Static RAM (SRAM) and the non-volatility of flash memory. Since MRAM retains information when power is turned off, products (personal computers, for instance) using it could start up instantly, without waiting for software to boot up.

Scientists announce first three-dimensional assembly of magnetic and semiconducting nanoparticles
Scientists from Columbia University, IBM and the University of New Orleans announced a new, three-dimensional designer material assembled from two different types of particles only billionths of a meter across.

In the June 26 issue of Nature, the team described the precision chemistry methods developed to tune the particles' sizes in increments of less than one nanometer and to tailor the experimental conditions so the particles would assemble themselves into repeating three-dimensional patterns.

Designing new materials with otherwise unattainable properties, sometimes referred to as "metamaterials," is one of the promises of nanotechnology. Two-dimensional patterns had previously been created from gold nanoparticles of different sizes and mixtures of gold and silver. Extending this concept to three dimensions with more diverse types of materials demonstrated the ability to bring more materials together than previously realized.

IBM demonstrated new nanotechnology method to build chip components
IBM announced it was the first to successfully apply a novel approach in nanotechnology to aid conventional semiconductor processing, potentially enabling continued device miniaturization and chip performance improvements. IBM used a "molecular self-assembly" technique that is compatible with existing chip-making tools, making it attractive for applications in future microelectronics technologies because it avoids the high cost of tooling changes and the risks associated with major process changes.

IBM's self-assembly technique relies on the tendency of certain types of polymer molecules to organize themselves. The polymer molecules pattern critical device features that are smaller, denser, more precise and more uniform than can be achieved using conventional methods like lithography. The use of techniques such as self assembly could ultimately lead to more powerful electronic devices such as microprocessors used in the growing array of computer systems, communications devices and consumer electronics. IBM expects self-assembly techniques could be used in pilot phases in three to five years.