Author: Randall Shane
Date: 21:41:38 01/14/03
Go up one level in this thread
On January 14, 2003 at 23:27:09, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On January 14, 2003 at 03:56:53, Mark Schreiber wrote: > >>On January 11, 2003 at 20:22:04, Matt Taylor wrote: >> >>>On January 10, 2003 at 17:21:41, Robert Hyatt wrote: >>> >>>>On January 09, 2003 at 07:35:41, Mark Schreiber wrote: >>>> >>>>>That’s because people have learned from history. IBM partners with other >>>>>companies because they can not develop high technology on its own. IBM supplies >>>>>the money; the other company does the work. They have tried this before. It >>>>>always fails miserably. They tried it with Siemens to make phone systems. With >>>>>Apple and HP to get a GUI OS. Motorola for CPU’s. Toshiba for memory chips. >>>>>Don’t expect any high technology products to come from this. >>>>>Mark >>>> >>>> >>>>IBM can't "develop high technology on its own"??? >>>> >>>>:) >>>> >>>>History sure doesn't support that... >>> >>>Nor current events. It has been a little while since I looked into it, but last >>>I checked IBM held the world's largest (and most coherent) quantum computer. >>> >>>-Matt >> >>IBM can’t develop high technology products that are more innovative than their >>competitors. The joint ventures are an attempt at buying innovation. I just >>remembered 1 more failure. IBM’s and AT&T develop the Multics operating system. >>The quantum computer isn’t a joint venture. It won’t be practical for many >>decades. It is strictly for public relations similar to deep blue. >>Mark > > >I may be wrong, but I don't remember IBM being involved in Multics, at least >not in the early years of the development. I seem to remember that was a >Honeywell project initially along with at least CMU and probably other academic >institutions. > >However, IBM certainly led the world into the world of integrated circuits. >that started the PC revolution, disk drive innovations, the list goes on and >on. I doubt any single company owns more patents than they do. Mark, you really want to check your history. (Disclaimer : I currently work for IBM as a programmer and tech team lead. Nobody in their right mind should consider me a representative of IBM, though, and I don't claim to speak for them.) (1) The only connection that IBM had to the Multics project was that Multics' predecessor, CTSS, was written to run on an IBM 709 machine (circa 1961) that MIT owned. Multics was a CMU/MIT/Honeywell project -- not IBM. Or AT&T for that matter. (A good reference point is http://www.multicians.org/history.html ) (2) To the best of my knowledge, IBM has never worked with Apple or Hewlett-Packard to develop a GUI operating system. Period. IBM's GUI operating system was OS/2, a joint project between Microsoft and IBM (later taken over by IBM). (3) The only connection that IBM and Siemens have in the phone systems area was that after buying Rolm fro 1.3 billion in '84, IBM sold Rolm to Siemens for $333 million in 1998. Yeah, that was a bad business decision,, but not caused by an incapability to develop technology. (One source for this is http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2002/03/19/big-tech.htm .) (IBM might have been better off developing than buying). (4) Motorola was making microprocessors for IBM systems (PowerPC line, the processors in the AIX boxes, etc.) IBM's making most of them themselves now. IBM designs, too. I can't comment on the Toshiba for memory chips item, because I don't know anything. However, to state the IBM is incapable of developing high technology on it's own is to be willfully blind to the mainframe technology they have developed over the past 40 years -- and just because it's not microprocessor based, don't assume it's low tech! IBM microelectronics advances are being used in IBM products today. One can say many things about IBM, but I don't think you can say that IBM (especially since 1995) can't develop and use technology. Actually, Mark, do you have any actual examples other than the possible Toshiba one of IBM paying other companies to develop IBM tech because IBM can't? Any? I'd like to know.
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