IBM and Research and Developement - Cyborg 009

We dislike the man who tries

To give us title clear

To any mansion in the skies

An’ grab our title here.

Douglas Malloch, Behind a Spire

IBM (International Business Machines) is the evangelist of research. Of all the Silicon Valley companies, they have the most invested in Research and Development, an oddity in a profit-obsessed Silicon Valley. Their methodology is making money from patents in the future subsidized from profits made from their current business.

Not surprising therefore that research firm Millard Brown Optimor named IBM as the 3^rd most important brand as stated in the article “Google, IBM, Apple - World's most valuable brands”, published April 28, 2010 8:05 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Business Tech.

For the statistics geeks, Millard Brown Optimor’s 5^th Annual Report, the so called BrandZ Top 100 Report ranked as Google received 1^st place sash with Apple ranging up closely into 2^nd place as brand go with coming Microsoft 4^th like Lazarus.

And why not IBM, the company so quiet and not prone to make a sensational stir of things! After all, they are involved in doing the most research that I know for any company, both within the US of A as well as with science partners in the EU and Japan.

With the EU, they are partnered under the  so-called Diamond Consortium working on improving the testing methods for detecting flaws in microprocessors as stated in the article “IBM, EU team up to improve chip reliability”, published February 11, 2010 9:50 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Cutting Edge.

Designing photovoltaic or Solar cells from common heavy metals such as Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Selenium (Se) and Tin (Sn) is a research paper published with the Journal of Advanced Materials in February 2010 as state in the article “IBM boosts Solar cell made of abundant materials”, published February 11, 2010 8:16 AM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

If brought to factory production, this higher efficiency photovoltaic that IBM most certainly would have people beating a path to their door, as it would be a significant cost saver and a move away from silicon and more expensive Boron (B) and Germanium (Ge).

Their research is not only geared towards making electronics gadgets better. Practical “out of the lab” concepts such as Solar powered Desalination Plant in the city of Al-Khafji, allowing nearly one hundred thousand (100,000) people to get potable water as stated in the article “IBM, Saudis to open Solar desalination plant”, published April 8, 2010 7:32 AM PDT, by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Planetary Gear.

Applications to Jamaica’s situation with an eye towards Water Sector Liberalization make this particular Technology relevant to Jamaica as per my blog article entitled “Water Sector Policy and Water Sector Liberalization Needed to Avoid Drought”.

A collaborative effort since 2008 with the Saudi based Research group called the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), the plant announced in April 2010 takes advantage of another lab tested technology developed by IBM, that being ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) cells, effectively Solar Panels with a smaller footprint and concentrator lenses – most likely optimized to not suffer from burnout associated with concentrator based photovoltaics.

Worthy of another article on Solar and Wind Power for Telecom Provider in Jamaica in addition to the previous before as stated in my blog article entitled “Alternative Energy - A Telecom Provider's Strong Tower” and “Alternative Energy and Helix - A Test Case for Wind Power for Telecom Providers”.

IBM’s frontiers on the encryption front with the possibility of amorphous coding (this is a bit beyond me!) were also recently extended with the publication of a paper by a thirty five (35) year old IBM Intern named Craig Gentry.

A PhD candidate at Stanford University, his breakthrough in announced in September of 2010 showed that it is indeed possible to read a message without decoding it, and in real time too, if you can understand the analogy of boxes within boxes as per the article “IBM's encryption breakthrough for the Web”, published September 30, 2009, 8:19PM EST By Stephen Baker INTERNET - BusinessWeek.

Rounding out the year of innovation is the news that the earlier push to make Solar cells or photovoltaics out of common materials such as Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Selenium (Se) and Tin (Sn) may be coming to fruition at last with a product by as early as 2012.

IBM has partnered with the Japanese firm Solar Frontier to develop the Solar cells designed and announced earlier in February 2011 as stated in the article “IBM partners to produce thin-film Solar cells”, published October 20, 2010 7:55 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

John Public feels that IBM got slighted, as sometimes the technology evangelists, because they use Marketing and Advertising, preaching about Heaven in a gadget, grabs the headlines and the PhD’s do not get their day in the sun.

Yet like the church pastor, they sell you what they advertised as being the “bee’s knees” and take your money and leave you a bit poorer and the People’s Republic of China a bit richer as I had opined in my blog article entitled Apple Refresh and the US Economy - Chinese Dragon has a Jade Eye

Thus, it is good to hear of one (1) company bucking the trend by making Research and Development a top priority as opposed to a Silicon Valley devoid of an interest in Research and Development as stated in the article “The Other U.S. Energy Crisis: Lack of R&D”, published June 17, 2010, 12:01AM EST by Peter Coy, POLITICS & POLICY, BusinessWeek - and a-swimming with Technology Rock Stars. IBM is Dr. Gilmore and his Cyborgs set out to save the world as per the Japanese anime Cyborg 009!

But there is another technology breakthrough that is so big, that the “Memory” of its implications on the electronics world as we know is too great for my blog.

Thus, I shall reserve that technology breakthrough for a more detailed article for the “RaceTrack” on Administrator Kirk’s Geezam blog.