The IBM Story

Unlike most contemporary tech giants, IMB, or International Business Machines has its origins at the turn of the 20th Century. The company was originally named 'The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company' when it was incorporated in 1911. Their early products were simple business devices intended to help with time and record keeping, such as punch card machines. After World War II, the company moved onto computers and components; developing disk storage technology and durable hard drives. The 1960s were its golden age. IBM had built the powerful and comprehensive System/360, with revolutionary interchangeable software and up to 19 combinations of power, speed and memory. While computers were big, IBM radically shrunk storage space with commercial floppy disks in 1971. The PC was developed substantially by the launch of the IBM Personal Computer 5150, its software was the brainchild of a new and ambitious software development firm called Microsoft. The company is currently a major conglomerate and investment platform largely focussed on the manufacture of supercomputer systems and smart, internet based technology supporting e-business.