29 

2002

IBM

 has more systems than any vendor on a list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, 

nearly doubling the number of machines posted by the second place company, the combined 

Hewlett Packard/Compaq.  

The company creates the world's fastest silicon based transistor, achieving speeds of 350 

GigaHertz. The new transistor performs nearly 300 percent faster than production devices and 65 

percent faster than previously reported silicon transistors.  

IBM

 scientists build the world's smallest working silicon transistor. At six nanometers in length, 

the new transistor is at least 10 times smaller than the state of the art production transistors.  

IBM

 researchers create the highest performing nanotube transistors to date and prove that carbon 

nanotubes    tube shaped molecules made of carbon atoms that are 50,000 times thinner than a 

human hair    can outperform the leading silicon transistor prototypes available.  

Using an innovative nanotechnology, 

IBM

 scientists in Switzerland demonstrate a data storage 

density of a trillion bits per square inch    20 times higher than the densest magnetic storage  

available. 

IBM

 achieves this density    enough to store 25 million printed textbook pages on a 

surface the size of a postage stamp    in a research project called  Millipede.   

IBM

 records 1 terabyte (

TB

) of data to a linear digital tape cartridge, storing 10 times more data 

than any linear tape cartridge then available. (One terabyte is equal to 16 days of continuously 

running 

DVD

 movies or 8,000 times more data than a human brain retains in a lifetime.) The 1 

TB

 initiative had been under development since April 2001 at 

IBM

's Almaden Research Center 

in San Jose, Calif., and 

IBM

 storage product development laboratories in San Jose, Calif.; 

Tucson, Ariz., and Yamato, Japan. (This achievement coincides with 

IBM

's 50th anniversary of 

magnetic tape storage that ushered in a new era of information processing. In May 1952, 

IBM

introduced the Model 726 tape drive [see 

http://www 

1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/701/701_1415bx26.html

] which stored a total of 1.4 megabytes  

  equal to one floppy disk in 2002    on a movie reel over 12 inches in diameter and using a 

special tape media developed by 3M.)  

Company researchers build and operate the world's smallest working computer circuits using an 

innovative new approach in which individual molecules move across an atomic surface like 

toppling dominoes. The new  molecule cascade  technique enables 

IBM

 scientists to make 

working digital logic elements some 260,000 times smaller than those used in most advanced 

semiconductor chips.  

IBM

 announces a research collaboration that will help 

NASA

 scientists analyze tele robotic data 

during the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover expeditions.  

IBM

 researchers demonstrate the industry's first self diagnostic tool that can automatically 

monitor 802.11 wireless networks and report security problems in real time.  

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