In-Depth

Inside IBM

• 12/01/1998

To mark the 100th anniversary of magnetic recording, IBM announced the "world’s highest capacity hard drive for desktop PCs." In 1956, IBM introduced the first hard disk drive that had a capacity of 5 megabytes. Now in 1998, IBM’s Deskstar 25GP 25-GB drive has 5,000 times the capacity of that first drive. It holds either the double-spaced typed text on a stack of paper more than 4,000 feet high, more than six full-length feature films or 20,000 digital images.

IBM also introduced the fastest desktop PC hard drive shipping (based on the WinBench 98 benchmark test). At 22 GB, Deskstar 22GXP offers the highest capacity desktop PC 7,200 RPM drive. It targets video editors, engineers, scientists and other extreme performance PC and power users. The 5,400 RPM 25 GB drive is designed more for the consumer or "pleasure" PC user that wants high capacity with good performance.

Both drives are designed for storage-intensive applications such as multimedia, video streaming, 3D graphics, digital photo albums and storing large images downloaded from the Internet or intranets. These drives are among the first drives to feature Ultra ATA/66, an interface that doubles the rate which the computer can exchange data with the drive.

IBM introduced three new development tools to help companies prepare and test their enterprise systems for the Year 2000.

The two new Year 2000 date-fixing tools adjust the dates as the applications run. The tools include Runtime Analyzer and the Millennium Runtime Windowing Tool. Runtime Analyzer searches out and identifies the potential date fields in critical business applications as the application is running. Developers can then go into the application manually and adjust the "found" dates. Millennium Runtime Windowing Tool uses the popular Year 2000 "windowing" technology, this tool identifies potential dates and automatically fixes those dates in the application while it is running.

For those organizations that need to test their Y2K applications, IBM introduced Unit Test Assistant. With this "date warping" tool, companies can find out whether their applications can accept dates beyond the year 2000 and still run correctly. The tool automatically "warps" the dates in an application and shifts them forward into the 21st century, without changing the data files.

In addition, IBM offers Year 2000 development tools, including both temporary and permanent date corrections and testing on systems ranging from PCs to mid-range workstations to the largest servers. Those tools include the C and C Maintenance and Test Toolsuite for RS/6000 workstations, Bypass/2000 for the mid-range AS/400 and Millennium Language Extensions S/390.

The National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure has selected IBM to install the first computer, dedicated to academic researchers, that is capable of teraflops performance - one trillion calculations per second. The supercomputer, to be installed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), will help researchers tackle deep computing problems, such as unlocking the secrets of the human brain, climate modeling and understanding the origins of the universe.

Delivery of the system, an IBM RS/6000 SP running IBM’s AIX operating system, is scheduled for the second half of next year. Initially a quarter teraflops system will be installed and tested, after which the system will be upgraded to a full teraflops system. When complete, the system will have more than 1,000 microprocessors and be the largest constructed with IBM’s POWER3 chip.

In conjunction with the agreement, SDSC and IBM have expanded their partnership, which currently involves data storage and digital libraries, to include parallel programming environments and "transparent supercomputing." Transparent supercomputing will enable users from around the world to access the computer over the Internet using a Web browser. For example, biologists using a remotely controlled electron microscope to study specimens could request 3-D reconstructions of the specimen. Or, environmental scientists could perform simulations of an oil spill in San Diego Bay.

IBM and Intel announced joint efforts to promote broad industry adoption of Internet security features that work across multiple computing platforms. IBM and Intel will promote the adoption of the Common Data Security Architecture specification, which enables developers to create interoperable, CDSA-based applications and solutions. The two companies also will conduct joint activities that will help educate the information technology community on using CDSA in their environments.

In support of this initiative, IBM plans to ship KeyWorks, the first CDSA-based product in the market, in the AIX, OS/400 and OS/390 operating systems, as well as in its IBM Vault Registry certificate management software and the IBM eNetwork Firewall for AIX and NT products. Intel plans to make selected IBM KeyWorks technologies available with its CDSA reference implementation, which will increase the interoperability of the specification.

IBM and Intel will sponsor a series of industry events designed to educate the developer and IT communities on the benefits of CDSA-based products and solutions using this open architecture. The programs will include multi-vendor seminars, interoperability forums, technology development workshops, demonstrations and publication of technical documentation. CDSA, originated by Intel, is an industry-accepted specification for the development of security-enabled applications that are interoperable and offer cross-platform support.