Chapter 9 Section 2 Leading the wave of electronic technology revolution
If IBM was just a lucky follower in the last mechanical revolution, it was a total leader in the electronic revolution that began at the end of World War II.The computer and the IBM name are inseparable, just as the telephone is inseparable from AT&T.On the one hand, IBM has been able to continue to develop for half a century because of computers. On the other hand, computers have been applied from scientific computing to the commercial field and people's daily life because of the promotion of IBM.
When we talk about the relationship between IBM and computers, let us first review the background and process of the invention of electronic computers.
A sage once said that the needs of the society have more effect on the progress of science and technology than ten universities.It is against this background that computers were invented.The direct purpose of developing computers in the United States is to calculate the trajectory of ballistics for the military during World War II.In fluid mechanics, the amount of calculation is often so large that manual slide rules cannot be calculated. Therefore, the need for a general-purpose computer arises.In the process of computer development, countless scientists and engineers have made outstanding contributions, but the most important three should be Von Neumann (People who have watched the American movie "Life is Beautiful" and Chinese TV series should be I have an impression of him) - see the attached picture, John Mouchly and Presper Eckert, it should be said that von Neumann is the main proposer of the electronic computer system structure (architechture) that runs programs today, This system structure, known as von Neumann, influences to this day.Mauchlai and Eckert are the general directors of the development of the world's first electronic computer ENIAC (Unfortunately, it is not actually the ancestor of today's computer, because it cannot load programs, and instructions have to be repeated Enter it) When developing the design plan of the world's first modern computer EDVAC, the three of them participated together, and finally it was drafted by von Neumann and handed over to the military. The name of von Neumann was written on it, and the contributions of Mauchlai and Eckert have since been forgotten.Later, Mao Qilai and Eckert believed that the property rights of the computer should belong to themselves rather than the University of Pennsylvania.The two fell out with the university and came out to form the world's first computer company, Eckert-Mauchler.The company developed a computer called UNIVAC, which was provided to the U.S. Census Bureau and the military.But because Eckert and Mochlei are both scholars who can't manage business, their company soon lost money and closed down.
(von Neumann)
IBM's Watson saw that computers would play a very important role in the future society. He decided to invest in the development of computers and invited von Neumann as a consultant. IBM also invited a lot of engineers, and MIT as its strong technical support.Little Watson increased IBM's research and development funding from 3% in his father's time to 9%.Until the 1960s, when IBM produced the famous IBM360, IBM's total investment in computer development and production was as high as 5 billion US dollars, equivalent to one-third of the entire Marshall Plan.Just five years after Watson came to power, he tripled IBM's turnover.During the 20 years that Watson was in charge of IBM, IBM's average annual growth rate was as high as 30%, which may be unique in the world, and his father did not do this either.
In my personal opinion, Watson's greatest contribution to the world is not turning IBM into a very successful company, but promoting computers from government departments and the military to civilians, and changing its functions from scientific computing to commercial use.These two items made computers popular in companies, schools, and various organizations.More than ten years ago, when computers were not very popular in China, what would a computer do if a public opinion survey was done?I think that 89% of the respondents would think that computers are used for scientific computing.In fact, there are not so many problems in the world that need to be calculated.If computers were limited to scientific computing, it would not be as ubiquitous as it is today.Of course, today we know that computers can be used purely to store information, process tables and words, edit and print articles.But fifty years ago, it was remarkable to be able to see that.Little Watson saw this. On the one hand, this is where his genius lies. On the other hand, IBM, a company that has long produced form processing machinery, understands the needs in this area.
Since IBM started to make computers, it has basically followed the principles of performance priority and price and centralized services.High-performance, multi-user mainframes have been the focus of IBM's hardware manufacturing until the last decade. Many of IBM's mainframes have become classics in computer system structure design, and have a particularly long lifespan, a bit like Boeing's airliners.Among them, the most famous are the IBM360/370 series in the 1960s and the IBM4300 series in the 1970s and 1980s.At that time, the price was more than one million dollars, and the performance was not as good as a personal computer today.However, these computer design ideas are still compulsory content for computer designers.
Due to the astonishingly high cost of computers fifty years ago, except for government departments and the military, only large banks and multinational companies can afford them.There are a lot of simple calculations in the bank, mainly adding, subtracting and subtracting on the accounts, and do not need complicated functions, such as trigonometric functions, exponential logarithmic functions, and so on.Therefore, there is a need for a programming language that specializes in simple operations on large amounts of data.COBOL, the mainstream high-level programming language in the 1960s and 1970s, was born under this background. The full name of COBOL is Common Business Oriented Language (Common Business Oriented Language), as the name suggests, it is a programming language for business data processing.Although COBOL was not developed by IBM, IBM's influence on it was huge, because two of the six-member committees that developed it were from IBM. The COBOL language was the most popular programming language in the world in the 1960s and 1970s, but there were very few people who could write COBOL programs, so their income was much higher than that of today's software engineers.This, to some extent, encourages young people to enter the field of computer software. IBM's research level is very high, and it has also participated in the formulation of many standards. Therefore, it plays the dual roles of athletes and referees in commercial competitions.From the 1950s to the early 1980s, IBM was basically alone in the computer field.
For the first three decades of computing history, IBM had only one lightweight commercial competitor—Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).Because IBM's mainframe is too expensive, small and medium-sized companies and schools can't afford it. There is a demand for relatively cheap and low-performance minicomputers in the market, and DEC came into being.For a long time, although the two companies were competing, they basically did not interfere with each other, because the computer market was far from saturated and could accommodate two competitors.In these three decades, the two companies have developed like ducks in water.Basically it can be said that IBM led the wave and DEC followed the pace.
If IBM has any rivals, it's the U.S. government's Department of Justice.There has never been a king in the United States, and Americans do not allow a king to appear in a commercial field.When a monopoly arises, the Ministry of Justice will sue the monopoly company in the name of anti-monopoly.From the early 1970s to the early 1980s, the US Department of Justice and IBM fought an antitrust lawsuit for ten years, and the two finally settled in 1982.Generally believed that this is IBM's victory.However, IBM also paid a high price for this.I think there are two main aspects. First, IBM separated some service departments and made them independent companies; second, IBM had to disclose some technologies, which led to the emergence of countless IBM-PC compatible machine companies.
It should be said that IBM successfully led the revolution of computer technology after World War II.It makes the computer move from the government to the society, from pure scientific calculation to business.It drifted with the tide of the computer revolution for thirty years.Due to the high monopoly profits, IBM's salaries, benefits and pensions for employees are very generous.For a long time after World War II, it was one of the most desirable companies for people looking for work.It even has the myth of never laying off staff until the 1980s and 1990s when it ran into trouble and had to do so for the first time.
(von Neumann)
IBM's Watson saw that computers would play a very important role in the future society. He decided to invest in the development of computers and invited von Neumann as a consultant. IBM also invited a lot of engineers, and MIT as its strong technical support.Little Watson increased IBM's research and development funding from 3% in his father's time to 9%.Until the 1960s, when IBM produced the famous IBM360, IBM's total investment in computer development and production was as high as 5 billion US dollars, equivalent to one-third of the entire Marshall Plan.Just five years after Watson came to power, he tripled IBM's turnover.During the 20 years that Watson was in charge of IBM, IBM's average annual growth rate was as high as 30%, which may be unique in the world, and his father did not do this either.
In my personal opinion, Watson's greatest contribution to the world is not turning IBM into a very successful company, but promoting computers from government departments and the military to civilians, and changing its functions from scientific computing to commercial use.These two items made computers popular in companies, schools, and various organizations.More than ten years ago, when computers were not very popular in China, what would a computer do if a public opinion survey was done?I think that 89% of the respondents would think that computers are used for scientific computing.In fact, there are not so many problems in the world that need to be calculated.If computers were limited to scientific computing, it would not be as ubiquitous as it is today.Of course, today we know that computers can be used purely to store information, process tables and words, edit and print articles.But fifty years ago, it was remarkable to be able to see that.Little Watson saw this. On the one hand, this is where his genius lies. On the other hand, IBM, a company that has long produced form processing machinery, understands the needs in this area.
Since IBM started to make computers, it has basically followed the principles of performance priority and price and centralized services.High-performance, multi-user mainframes have been the focus of IBM's hardware manufacturing until the last decade. Many of IBM's mainframes have become classics in computer system structure design, and have a particularly long lifespan, a bit like Boeing's airliners.Among them, the most famous are the IBM360/370 series in the 1960s and the IBM4300 series in the 1970s and 1980s.At that time, the price was more than one million dollars, and the performance was not as good as a personal computer today.However, these computer design ideas are still compulsory content for computer designers.
Due to the astonishingly high cost of computers fifty years ago, except for government departments and the military, only large banks and multinational companies can afford them.There are a lot of simple calculations in the bank, mainly adding, subtracting and subtracting on the accounts, and do not need complicated functions, such as trigonometric functions, exponential logarithmic functions, and so on.Therefore, there is a need for a programming language that specializes in simple operations on large amounts of data.COBOL, the mainstream high-level programming language in the 1960s and 1970s, was born under this background. The full name of COBOL is Common Business Oriented Language (Common Business Oriented Language), as the name suggests, it is a programming language for business data processing.Although COBOL was not developed by IBM, IBM's influence on it was huge, because two of the six-member committees that developed it were from IBM. The COBOL language was the most popular programming language in the world in the 1960s and 1970s, but there were very few people who could write COBOL programs, so their income was much higher than that of today's software engineers.This, to some extent, encourages young people to enter the field of computer software. IBM's research level is very high, and it has also participated in the formulation of many standards. Therefore, it plays the dual roles of athletes and referees in commercial competitions.From the 1950s to the early 1980s, IBM was basically alone in the computer field.
For the first three decades of computing history, IBM had only one lightweight commercial competitor—Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).Because IBM's mainframe is too expensive, small and medium-sized companies and schools can't afford it. There is a demand for relatively cheap and low-performance minicomputers in the market, and DEC came into being.For a long time, although the two companies were competing, they basically did not interfere with each other, because the computer market was far from saturated and could accommodate two competitors.In these three decades, the two companies have developed like ducks in water.Basically it can be said that IBM led the wave and DEC followed the pace.
If IBM has any rivals, it's the U.S. government's Department of Justice.There has never been a king in the United States, and Americans do not allow a king to appear in a commercial field.When a monopoly arises, the Ministry of Justice will sue the monopoly company in the name of anti-monopoly.From the early 1970s to the early 1980s, the US Department of Justice and IBM fought an antitrust lawsuit for ten years, and the two finally settled in 1982.Generally believed that this is IBM's victory.However, IBM also paid a high price for this.I think there are two main aspects. First, IBM separated some service departments and made them independent companies; second, IBM had to disclose some technologies, which led to the emergence of countless IBM-PC compatible machine companies.
It should be said that IBM successfully led the revolution of computer technology after World War II.It makes the computer move from the government to the society, from pure scientific calculation to business.It drifted with the tide of the computer revolution for thirty years.Due to the high monopoly profits, IBM's salaries, benefits and pensions for employees are very generous.For a long time after World War II, it was one of the most desirable companies for people looking for work.It even has the myth of never laying off staff until the 1980s and 1990s when it ran into trouble and had to do so for the first time.