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IBM started out as a Computing, Tabulating & Recording Company (C-T-R). "It founded by Herman Hollerith in the late 1800s. Their first large contract was to provide tabulating equipment for the tabulation and analysis of the 1890 US census" (Computer History Museum). -
Thomas J. Watson was an executive at the National Register Company. He soon became the general manager of C-T-R. "According to IBM's historians, "Watson implemented a series of effective business tactics. He preached a positive outlook, and his favorite slogan, "THINK," became a mantra for C-T-R's employees" (Bellis). -
In 1916 IBM takes steps for the first time towards setting up an education program for its employees with the foundation of an education department with an independent manager for it. As well as a study session for sales employees that is taken place in Endicott, New York. -
A printing tabulator was introduced by C-T-R in 1928. This invention set the stage for a more mechanized tabulation process. The process was limited at the time and due to this introduction the printing tabulator it was faster and more efficient to print than before. -
As the Great Depression flooded the nation it had affects of hundreds of companies and people. IBM however managed to grow. Thomas J. Watson took his employees great care of. "IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance, survivor benefits and paid vacations" (IBM). -
In the 1935 IBM was passed an accounting contract with the U.S. Government. This was used for the government to keep count of the current population of the 26 million Americans at the time. -
Also, in 1935 women where introduced. In Endicott, New York women systems service professionals was created. As well as the first female corporate vice president in 1943. -
When World War II came around IBM had facilities placed for the disposal of the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government had expanded to rifle's, engine parts and bombsights at these facilities to be counted for and taken care of. Something also included was "Thomas Watson, Sr., set a nominal one percent profit on those products and used the money to establish a fund for widows and orphans of IBM war casualties" (IBM). -
As World War II continued so did IBM. The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, also called the Mark I, which was developed at Harvard University was IBM's first computer. This computer calculator was eight feet high and more than 50 feet long and weighted over five tons. Taken less than 2 seconds to solve an addition problem, about six seconds for multiplication and about twice as long to solve division. The Mark I was a huge evolution to IBM and the direction they where headed. -
The IBM 701 was the company's first large computer based on the vacuum tube. The tubes where used to be easily replaceable and where smaller and quicker than the electromechanical switches in the Mark I. This computer completed 17,000 instructions per second and was used mostly for government and research purposes. -
The System/360 was "the first large "family" of computers to use interchangeable software and peripheral equipment. It was a bold departure from the monolithic, one-size-fits-all mainframe. Fortune magazine dubbed it "IBM's $5 billion gamble" (IBM). -
In 1971, IBM invented the very first application to enable customer engineers serving equipment to "talk" to and receive a spoken back response. IBM also created an experimental terminal that could print out, in braille, for the blind. -
As the 1980s arrive, the IBM PC does as well. IBM built one of the very first ever home customer computers for use. Costing around $1,500, the cheapest and smallest computer built to-date was finally accessible to the public. The operating system that was used was called MS-DOS which was "a non-graphical command line operating system derived from 86-DOS" (Computer Hope). -
IBM first introduced the ScanningScalable POWERparallel System which was the first in "a family of microprocessor-based supercomputers using RISC System/6000 technology" (IBM). This drove to a smaller, mass-produced computer processor. -
In July of 2005 IBM introduced the IBM System z9 mainframe. With a $1.2 billion development, involving 5,000 IBM engineers, software developers, technology proficiency and security experts, the z9 worked in the 2000s for the use of collaborative computing.