IBM Almaden Research Center

The IBM Almaden Research Centre is in San Jose, California, and is one of IBM's eight worldwide research labs. Its scientists perform basic and applied research in computer science, services, storage systems, physical sciences, and materials science and technology. The centre opened in 1986, and continues the research started in San Jose more than fifty years ago. Nearly all of Almaden’s approximately 500 research employees are in technical functions and more than half of these hold Ph.D.s. The lab is home to ten IBM Fellows, ten IBM Distinguished Engineers, nine IBM Master Inventors and seventeen members of the IBM Academy of Technology.

Almaden is located at 650 Harry Road on nearly 700 acres of land in the hills above Silicon Valley. The site was chosen because of its close proximity to Stanford University, UC Berkeley and other collaborative academic institutions. Research at the lab is organized into four areas: Science and Technology, Computer Science, Storage Systems, and Service Research.

Science and technology

The Science and Technology centre develops new technologies that are critical to IBM’s business and that enable a deeper understanding of the underlying science. One focus is on chemical materials and processes, such as advanced photo-resists for high-resolution lithography and dielectric materials. A second set of programs explores new materials and concepts for future technologies, such as nonvolatile memory cells based on magnetic-tunnel-junctions or organic electronics. Almaden scientists also conduct research in scientific areas aimed at expanding knowledge for continued growth of the IT industry's core technologies and to create the base for new IT paradigms. The lab is home to the specialized Scanning Tunneling Microscope that IBM Fellow Don Eigler built and then used to position individual atoms in 1989. Almaden scientists have made advances in nanotechnology, magnetic thin films, spin physics, quantum computing, quantum cryptography and the computer simulation of biological molecules and materials dynamics.

IBM Almaden Computer Science

The Computer Science centre provides technologies and solutions for computing, data management and internet applications. Research areas include advanced database solutions, middleware systems and technology for knowledge management, user design for human-computer interaction, Web technologies, content management, services-oriented architectures and e-commerce, e-utilities and computer science principles and methodologies. The group's core strengths include data management, knowledge management and content management. They have created helpdesk solutions, search technologies, knowledge management solutions, human-computer interaction solutions, cryptography protocols, data mining algorithms and more.

IBM Almaden Storage Systems

The Storage Systems centre conducts research in storage appliances, controllers and networks, storage and systems management software and parallel file systems. Storage systems are increasingly becoming central to the emerging world of connected networks and pervasive devices. Storage requirements are growing at an explosive rate and, increasingly, they must provide high performance and 24/7 availability, along with low total cost of ownership. Some estimate that 70 percent of future IT spending will go toward storage systems. The group has made significant contributions to IBM products such as Shark and Tivoli Storage Manager, helped create the iSCSI industry standard and invented the technologies underlying the new TotalStorage Volume Controller and TotalStorage SAN File System products.

IBM Almaden Service Research

The Service Research Centre studies the human side of doing business, addressing the large-scale, people- and information-intensive challenges that enterprises face in today’s global economy. By understanding these challenges from the perspectives of people, practices, communication and technology, companies can identify new opportunities to generate revenue, save money, and improve workers' lives. Service researchers span a variety of disciplines including computer science, economics, anthropology and sociology.

Service represents over 75 percent of the U.S. economy; companies are seizing new business opportunities by building more efficient IT systems, streamlining their business processes and embracing the internet, which leads to an enormous need for innovation in services. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of individuals with comprehensive knowledge of business, people and information technology - the combination most needed to provide effective services. Moreover, there are few focused efforts aimed at preparing people for this new environment or even understanding it. As services become an increasingly larger part of the global economy, IBM has joined with other corporations and universities to develop a new academic curriculum, Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), to provide the skills necessary to satisfy the growing need for service workers.

IBM Almaden Research Center Milestones

Pre-Almaden Milestones (San Jose Lab):

1952

• IBM establishes its first research group in San Jose at 99 Notre Dame Avenue, a converted printing facility

1956

• Invented/developed the first commercial hard-disk drive – Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (RAMAC)

1970

• Invented the relational database concept

1974

• Developed Structure Query Language (SQL) for relational databases

1975

• Developed the pioneering System R relational database management system
• First superconductivity found in a polymer – polysulfur nitride: one-half degree above absolute zero

1979

• Invented extendible hashing, a widely used method for rapid access to dynamic database files

1981

• Demonstrated the first inkjet printer

1982

• Invented the family of "chemically-amplified" photoresist materials used by the entire semiconductor industry

Almaden Milestones:

1977

• Decision made to build new laboratory; location selected

1983

• Construction begins on IBM Almaden Research Center

1986

• IBM Almaden Research Center dedicated
• Developed Distributed Relational Database Architecture protocol & algorithms that allow databases to scale efficiently to very large sizes by adding more processors

1988

• Developed the "query graph model" data structure that allowed DB2 to be extended to handle a wide variety of new data types
• First to propose "Fast-Write" for disk controllers
• First Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) image of an organic molecule: benzene ring
• Developed the "Hagar" disk array, the first industrial RAID data-storage prototype
• Working with thallium-based material, Almaden scientists report the highest superconducting transition temperature for a bulk material & thin film (125K)

1989

• Developed the ARIES algorithm for recovering data efficiently and effectively from failures within the database system
• First to position individual atoms one at a time: I-B-M written in xenon atoms using a STM
• 1-gigabit data-density magnetic recording demonstration

1990

• Single-peak nuclear magnetic resonance seen in C-60 (buckminsterfullerene); first proof of the suspected symmetric, soccer ball shape for C-60
• Discovered that the exchange coupling between two ferromagnetic films through a very thin non-magnetic metal spacer layer oscillates as the thickness of the spacer layer increases
• C-60 on gold surface imaged using a STM

1991

• Single-atom switch created
• As an internal project, developed technologies for backup-restore and archive-retrieve functions for heterogeneous data that ultimately led to today's Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) product

1993

• Quantum corral created
• Introduced zoned recording with sector servo and No-ID sector format for efficient layout of information on the disk
• Discovered single-wall carbon nanotubes

1994

• Invented the first data mining algorithms
• Published the first technical paper that links to a World Wide Web animation: a hyper-media file showing fracture-tip instabilities in a million-atom 2-D notched solid under tension
• Multilevel optical disk announced
• Developed the improved TrackPoint III pointing device (and then the TrackPoint IV in 1997)
• Announced first spin-valve Giant Magnetorisitive (GMR) head: world’s most sensitive read head

1995

• 3-gigabit data-density magnetic recording demonstration
• Played a central role in the unification of two competing DVD formats
• Created the easy-to-use Chemical Kinetics Simulator. Used worldwide in academia, industry and government; some 30,000 copies have been downloaded under a no-cost license

1996

• Method created to generate an infinite number of provably difficult problems, useful in developing public-key cryptography
• Analyzed web-page-linking for the first time, leading to the concepts of hubs and authorities, advanced search technologies, large-scale text analytics technologies and tools
• 5-gigabit data-density magnetic recording demonstration

1997

• World’s first public-key encryption scheme created with a mathematically proven uniform level of protection
• Developed the ScrollPoint Mouse, which uses TrackPoint technology to enable easy, intuitive document and web-page scrolling
• 11.6-gigabit data-density magnetic recording demonstration

1998

• Announced the IBM Microdrive -- the world’s smallest disk drive—with capacities of 340 megabytes and 1 gigabyte
• Proposed the concept of managing data over Ethernet using Internet protocols that would become the Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) industry standard
• Developed the General Parallel File System (GPFS), which large supercomputer clusters use to manage hundreds of terabytes and to read/write at several gigabytes per second
• Linked macro-, meso- and microscopic material dynamics computer simulations seamlessly to model the rapid brittle fracture of a 100-million-atom slab of silicon
• Proposed the concept of a Storage Area Network (SAN)-wide file system with policy-based storage management, resulting in IBM's SAN File System product that debuted in 2003
• Using GPFS on part of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) White supercomputer, one terabyte of random data is sorted in a world record 17 minutes, 37 seconds—three times faster than before

1999

• 35.3-gigabit data-density magnetic recording demonstration
• Exploited our strengths in database and computational chemistry to create key technologies for IBM’s DiscoveryLink product,

a system for integrated access to life sciences data sources

• IBM’s DB2 Universal Database shatters Windows NT scalability barrier with the industry’s first-ever one-terabyte Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC)-D benchmark on Windows NT

2000

• Quantum mirage observed
• Developed optical device that efficiently shapes a Gaussian laser beam into a flat intensity profile and propagates great distances
• 5-qubit quantum computer demonstrated by executing quantum "order-finding" algorithm
• Demonstrated holographic data storage density of 254-gigabits per square inch—80 times that of a DVD
• IBM awarded the National Medal of Technology for its leadership in developing and commercializing data storage technology

2001

• IBM ships disk drives with new “antiferromagnetically coupled” magnetic media; also known as pixie dust
• 7-qubit quantum computer demonstrates Shor's algorithm by factoring 15
• Magnetic resonance force microscope measures world's smallest force: 820 zeptonewtons

2002

• Hippocratic Database proposed to enhance privacy of sensitive personal data
• Created the molecule cascade—first nanoscale circuit to demonstrate necessary computing qualities
• An unprecedented billion-atom computer simulation showed the creation and entanglement of dislocations

that work-harden a ductile metal into a brittle material

• Created the Almaden Service Research function

2003

• IBM and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced a collaboration to build a huge DataGrid based on IBM's innovative Storage Tank storage virtualization software

2004

• Created with Stanford University the IBM-Stanford Center for Spintronic Science and Applications ([1])

to research and develop new types of circuits that exploit the quantum spin properties of electrons

• Imaged a single electron spin with a magnetic resonance force microscope, a major milestone toward achieving 3-D atom-scale magnetic resonance imaging
• Measured the energy required to flip the spin of a single electron using a new STM technique

2005

• Announced the Interoperable Health Information Infrastructure, a prototype medical information exchange system to enable industry collaboration and accelerate development of a standards-based national healthcare information system
• Installed two-rack Blue Gene system at Almaden; ported General Parallel File System (GPFS) to Blue Gene
• Installed prototype version of GPFS on the Blue Gene system at the San Diego Supercomputing Center
• The President of the United States named IBM a winner of the U.S. National Medal of Technology, acknowledging over 40 years of IBM semiconductor leadership

2006

• Used high-index immersion techniques to create the smallest, high-quality line patterns ever made – ridges and spaces each only 29.9-nanometers wide – with deep-ultraviolet (193-nanometer ) optical lithography
• Demonstrated 16X higher areal magnetic tape density
• Launched Computing research initiative, focused on understanding the workings of the human brain

and ultimately mechanizing cognition

• Honored with IBM awards for projects including Intelligent Document Gateway; Business Insights Workbench; Component Business Modeling; Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME); and End-User Services and Call Centers
• Provided key technology building blocks in support of company-wide Innovation Jam for IBMers, clients, partners and families

2007

• First measured a property called magnetic anisotropy in individual atoms. This fundamental measurement determines an atom’s ability to store information; eventually, it may be possible to build structures consisting of small clusters of atoms, or even individual atoms, which could reliably store magnetic information. Such a storage capability would enable nearly 30,000 feature length movies or the entire contents of YouTube – millions of videos estimated to be more than 1,000 trillion bits of data – to fit in a device the size of an iPod.
• Using Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy, demonstrated two-dimensional imaging of objects as small as 90 nanometers, a key advancement on the path of 3D imaging at the atomic scale. Such imaging could ultimately provide a better understanding of how proteins function, which in turn may lead to more efficient drug discovery and development.
• Introduced IBM Omnifind Personal Email Search, powered by advanced algorithms that can interpret incomplete queries and find information buried in emails such as phone numbers, people, meetings, presentations, documents, images and more.

2008

• Measured the force it takes to move individual atoms; this fundamental measurement provides important information for designing future atomic-scale devices: computer chips, miniaturized storage devices, and more.
• Announced significant breakthroughs in a completely new technology - racetrack memory (so named because data “races” around a wire nanoscale “track”) - which could lead to solid state electronic devices with no moving parts, and therefore more durable, capable of holding far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today