IBM is very possibly the sole tech company around that will have genuine difficulty whittling an inventory of its industry defining contributions right down to an insignificant 100. And it’s an impressively diverse collection at that, including the floppy disk, the social security system, the Apollo space missions, and the UPC barcode. All of this self-congratulation isn’t without cause, after all. IBM was born 100 years ago today in Endicott, Long island, because the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, a merger between three companies, all peddling different technologies. That diversity has helped define IBM from its inception, and has offered a feeling of flexibleness, making it possible to maintain according to technology’s ever-quickening pace for a century.
In 1944, the corporate helped herald modern computing with the room-sized Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, and 37 years later, it played a vital role in defining the era of home computing with the way more manageable IBM Laptop. In 1997, IBM introduced a machine that beat the world’s reigning chess champion, and earlier this year, it created person who trounced two of the best players in Jeopardy history. Nowadays, when the corporate seriously is not building machines devoted to outsmarting mankind, it’s trying to promote sustainable development through its Smarter Planet program. So, happy centennial, Big Blue, and here’s to 100 more, assuming your super-smart machines don’t enslave us all meanwhile.
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