The celebration this year of the 50th anniversary of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) is a reminder of the changes computing has undergone during the past 50 years. Not only has computer architecture and hardware undergone a phenomenal evolution, but the range of applications for computing has greatly expanded. From a specialized tool for the few - the ENIAC, for example, was designed for wartime ballistics calculations - computers have come to be multipurpose machines for the many.
In the process, the very meaning of computing is changing. Today, through the Internet and the World Wide Web, computers have become a powerful means of accessing a new world of information and services. At the same time, through the development of innovative algorithms, new techniques have emerged that allow users to identify optimal solutions and unearth pertinent information buried in the sheer complexity of their raw data.
The main articles in this issue of IBM Research focus on various aspects of this evolving area of computing technology. Broadly characterized as decision support, it includes a variety of techniques, of which data mining is among the best known. In the cover story, "Digging for Data", Peter Gwynne surveys a range of tools developed by Research, in collaboration with its partners in IBM, for discovering hidden relationships, trends and patterns in virtually any amount of data.
A familiar problem encountered by decision-makers is that of finding the best solution in the face of conflicting objectives. Experience and gut feelings may work up to a point, but they can easily be overwhelmed by the soaring numbers of possibilities. In "Decision Support Trims a Paper Company's Costs", Gil Bassak describes how an innovative scheduling system can supplement human intelligence, whittling down the uncertainty to several optimal choices from which a scheduler can choose.
Of all the decisions people have to make, perhaps none is as daunting as one that depends on the amount of rainfall in coming months. While precise predictions are not yet possible, informed estimates based on the historical record are. The trick lies in analyzing the data. In , Robert Pool tells how new statistical techniques were applied to 85 years' worth of precipitation records to produce the National Drought Atlas - a what-to-expect guide for rainfall anywhere in the United States.
Chess, too, is a matter of making the right decisions, and IBM's Deep Blue has raised computer-chess to new levels. In"The Making of a Chess Machine", Eric Lerner describes the evaluation system and parallel-processing technology underlying Deep Blue's remarkable chess-playing capabilities.
The ever-growing complexity of the microprocessors, controllers and other integrated circuits that enable computers to serve as human "intelligence amplifiers" is itself a mounting challenge to chip designers. The invention by IBM researchers of novel techniques to verify the correctness of a chip's design at various stages of its implementation has had a profound impact within the company. The nature and genesis of those verification methods is described in "Viewpoint", our guest columnist Linda S. Sanford, general manager of the System/390 Division, explains the innovations that are keeping the mainframe in the mainstream of computing.
