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The IBM Punched Card

From the beginning of tabulation, stiff rectangular cards punched with holes became the way data was recorded and stored.

As IBM grew to dominate data processing by the 1920s, its cards—which only worked on IBM machines and vice-versa—became the global industry standard.

In 1928, IBM improved on the cards’ design so more data could be stored on a single card.

From the 1950s through about 1970, IBM punched cards were the primary way corporations and governments stored and accessed information, making the cards the most durable, successful data storage medium since the book.

The First Corporate Pure Science Research Laboratory

“Think” was at the core of Watson’s being.

In 1944, he established the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory at Columbia University, the first corporate laboratory dedicated to pure scientific research.

There, a handful of scientists used machines previously dedicated to accounting to investigate everything from atomic fission to the orbit of the moon.

Embedding IBM within a university helped to develop a diverse new field of thinkers.

Today, eight IBM labs work with government and university research labs worldwide.

This new model of “collaboratories” allows the company to stretch its budget and access some of the best minds on the planet.

DRAM

The Invention of On-Demand Data

In the mid-1960s, IBM researcher Bob Dennard developed the world’s first one-transistor memory, calling it “dynamic random access memory,” or DRAM. Finally, mainframes could be outfitted with short-term memory to act as a buffer to the data stored on disk drives.

The memory chips would hold information the computer was working on right then, so it could go back to the disk drive only when it needed something new.

This vastly sped up the process of accessing and using stored information.

DRAM instantly made computer memory smaller, denser and cheaper, all while requiring less power.

Automated Test Scoring

IBM pioneered the measurement of academic performance with 1937’s IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine.

This machine was able to score tests in less time than it took to manually mark the answer sheet, and was many times more accurate.

Its innovative pencil-mark sensing technology gave rise to the ubiquitous phrase, “Please completely fill in the oval.”

The innovation came into use just prior to World War II, when the government relied on the machine to process and place large numbers of applicants into jobs.

Scanning Tunneling Microscope

The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) revolutionized our ability to manipulate solid surfaces the size of atoms.

Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM’s Zurich Research Center were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the STM.

And the STM, in turn, has led to other discoveries on a “nano” scale, playing an essential role in the blossoming of nanotechnology.

It was vital in the 1990s discovery of fullerenes, which led to the development of the carbon nanotube.

The Nobel committee said the invention opened up “entirely new fields... for the study of the structure of matter.”