A banner year for Big Blue patents

By Michael Puttre -- Design News, February 16, 1998

For the fifth consecutive year, IBM is the U.S. patents leader. In 1997, IBM received 1,724 U.S. patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office--over 300 more than any other company. The achievement caps a year in which IBM introduced a breakthrough in semiconductor technology with the development of integrated circuits using copper wiring in place of aluminum. Big Blue has more than 50 issued and pending patents relating to the use of copper interconnect technology. IBM also set a record for disk drive storage capacity, breaking the barrier of 10 billion bits of data per square inch. The company also continued to introduce advances in speech recognition, including new Via Voice products for the Chinese and Japanese markets. IBM's 1997 U.S. patent portfolio includes more than 550 software-related patents and over 250 related to network computing. Also in 1997, IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov in a chess match that captured worldwide attention, although didn't win the company many friends. For details on these and other technologies, check out IBM's Website at www.ibm.com.

related stories
resource center
by this author

View more articles by Michael Puttré

Technology Marketplace

Article tools sponsored by

Talkback

We would love your feedback!

» View All Talkback Threads

» Submit talk back

DN's Resource Center Get Free Information, Made Easy

Friction, Wear and Lubrication Info from Society
Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers | Design Guide
Request Item
Best Practices for Green, Energy, and Supplier Challenges
Dell Computer Corp. | Web Event
Request Item

View all DN resources >>

Design News Partner Zones

CAD/CAE Model Clean-Up: Reduce Iterative Cycles
This webinar featured research and survey results related to problems associated with preparing CAD geometry for CAE applications. We discussed how Recipe-Based Automation can help create "just-in-time" CAE-ready geometry each time a cad model is updated. Watch the Presentation

Light Matters: A High-Performance, "No-Compromise" Solid State Lamp?
First, let's define "no-compromise". In an ideal configuration, this lamp would use a high-brightness LED (HBLED) that is built into a small, integrated package, and is able to produce a large quantity of focused light, operate with a high level of reliability and generate no audible noise. Is this difficult? Yes, but it is possible.
Read More

Design Engineers' Portal for Sensing and Machine Safety
Whatever industry you're in, or whatever product you manufacture, the right sensors to automate your plant, and to improve your overall efficiency, quality and safety are a must. You'll find Banner Engineering to be an amazing resource of products, training and people with expertise.