IBM100.com and the Icons of Progress

If you’ve been following the IBM Watson “Jeopardy!” challenge, you probably know this already, but IBM celebrates its centennial this year. That’s right. IBM, a technology company, will reach 100 years of age.

The Watson challenge was the most visible event so far, but the whole year will be celebrated. In fact, if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s an impressive video explaining the important events – one for each of the 100 years.  Here it is:

 

One of the ways IBM is marking the special year is to have a special website, IBM100.com, with related information (including the video above), and part of that site highlights “Icons of Progress” in the 100 years of IBM’s history. So far this year the site has highlighted more than a dozen icons, from “The Floppy Disk” to “The First Salaried Workforce” to, of course, “A Computer Called Watson.” Each of these icons has a brief description of the event or technology, how IBM is related to it, and a place for people to comment and discuss it. To help with the ongoing conversation, IBM has identified an IBM expert to be connected to each of the icons.

I thought I would mention it here in “You and i” because today the “Icon of Progress” is the System/360, and if you visit the icon page, you just may recognize the person connected to the page.

Though I wasn’t working for IBM yet at the point when the System/360 was first sold, I certainly recognize the importance of that system in the history of computing, the history of information technology, and the history of architecture. (Let’s see, 1964? I was three years old ... ) Many of the early lessons about the value of standardization and specification found their way into the development of systems in general and also specifically into the development of IBM i and all of its predecessors.

And while we’re justifiably proud of the unification that happened when System i and System p became POWER Systems in 2007, the initial unification in IBM’s history--in fact the first unification in the computer industry--was when the S/360 replaced all five of IBM’s computer product lines. You can read more at the icon page, but it really was a momentous event, and has been called one of the top three business accomplishments.

I’m proud and happy to be connected with this “Icon of Progress.” “You and i” may get a few people visiting it who aren’t familiar with IBM i, and I hope you will check out a few of these “Icons of Progress” throughout the year. This will be a great chance for some interaction among IBM user communities. It’s what social networking is all about!


#ibm100 #ibmwatson #ibmi

IBM Watson – “NOVA” Episode and a Few Details

We’re less than a week away from the three-day “Jeopardy!” event where IBM Watson will compete against the two most celebrated winners of the popular quiz show. The shows will air February 14-16. Within IBM, at least, it’s generating a lot of excitement.

Outside of IBM it’s getting some notice as well. This week’s episode of NOVA on PBS is titled “Smartest Machine on Earth,” and it looks at #ibmwatson. It’s on most PBS stations on Wednesdays in the U.S. (10:00 p.m. EST, 9:00 p.m. CST).

 Here's the video:

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

 

When I wrote my previous blog about Watson, I received a question asking for specifications details. I have those details now, so to answer some questions people asked:

Watson has:
•    90 IBM Power 750 servers, which means
•    2880 POWER7 cores, each of which are on
•    3.55 GHz chips. The servers have a total of
•    16 Terabytes of memory and the chips have
•    500 GB/sec on-chip bandwidth, all of which is in
•    10 racks, including servers, networking, disks and controllers

One of the most impressive things about this technology set is the hardware is commercially available. The DeepQA software that makes up Watson’s thinking process isn’t, but the machines are. This differs from the previous IBM “thinking machine,” Deep Blue, which had hundreds of special purpose computer chips enhancing the system. Oh, and those Power 750s? They were built here in Rochester, Minn. Gotta love that.

I hope you can tune in, or DVR it, or see it somehow. I know I’ll catch it.  Being able to compete well, even if Watson doesn’t win (and I have no way of knowing!) shows the kind of progress we’re making in turning natural language into something computers can use, as well as in figuring out how to apply query and data management capability to real-world problems. It’s just so cool.

#ibmwatson