3 ms·

IBM are slightly weird in that they do ground breaking research and pump out some genuinely impressive products but then they don't seem particularly bothered s

by mhh__ 5y ago

IBM are slightly weird in that they do ground breaking research and pump out some genuinely impressive products but then they don't seem particularly bothered selling these products to anyone with anything less than a board of directors.

rbanffy 5y ago
They don't need to make money selling chips if they can license their IP to people who run the foundries. IBM's prodigious patent portfolio is a huge revenue source for the company.
- ngcc_hk 5y ago
  I wonder what is percentage? Is it still a mainframe shop? Last time I heard abd it failed is to become a consultancy firm with Pwc. What is ibm now?
  - jccooper 5y ago
    I don't know the numbers, but I do know they still do significant work in mainframes. They're even still designing their own Power processors for them.
    - agseward 5y ago
      Just a point of clarification, POWER and z (mainframe) are different architectures, both of which IBM still develops. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_ISA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_ISA [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/Architecture
  - agseward 5y ago
    IBM just spun out a $19B annual revenue managed infrastructure business, Kyndryl. [1] Doing some back of the napkin math on the remaining business, by revenue it is roughly 45% consulting, 40% software, and 15% hardware. IP revenue represents 1% ($626M) of its revenue. [2] What does it actually do? At a high level, help companies deal with the complexities created in a world of heterogeneous infrastructure (data and AI across environments, common management/security, automation, etc.). [1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/04/kyndryl-officially-launches-as-ibm-spins-out-infrastructure-services-biz-as-separate-company/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/04/kyndryl-officially-launche... [2] https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2020.pdf https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2020.... Disclaimer: I'm an IBM employee, but my opinions are my own and I'm just using public data.
- Tempest1981 5y ago
  Ah, ok. I didn't know if the IBM relationship with Samsung was exclusive. Sounds like no.
acomjean 5y ago
I worked at ibm research last century. They spent 6 billion on research. They had a chip fab in the building and still were making chips at the time. They had a wide range of researchers (mathematicians, physicists , software). working on all sorts of stuff (very motivated). Lots of cooling gasses. The problem was trying to turn those inventions into something they could sell. Chip tech was sold to whoever they could.

by mhh__ 5y ago

rbanffy 5y ago

They don't need to make money selling chips if they can license their IP to people who run the foundries. IBM's prodigious patent portfolio is a huge revenue source for the company.

ngcc_hk 5y ago
I wonder what is percentage? Is it still a mainframe shop? Last time I heard abd it failed is to become a consultancy firm with Pwc. What is ibm now?
- jccooper 5y ago
  I don't know the numbers, but I do know they still do significant work in mainframes. They're even still designing their own Power processors for them.
  - agseward 5y ago
    Just a point of clarification, POWER and z (mainframe) are different architectures, both of which IBM still develops. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_ISA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_ISA [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/Architecture
- agseward 5y ago
  IBM just spun out a $19B annual revenue managed infrastructure business, Kyndryl. [1] Doing some back of the napkin math on the remaining business, by revenue it is roughly 45% consulting, 40% software, and 15% hardware. IP revenue represents 1% ($626M) of its revenue. [2] What does it actually do? At a high level, help companies deal with the complexities created in a world of heterogeneous infrastructure (data and AI across environments, common management/security, automation, etc.). [1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/04/kyndryl-officially-launches-as-ibm-spins-out-infrastructure-services-biz-as-separate-company/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/04/kyndryl-officially-launche... [2] https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2020.pdf https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2020.... Disclaimer: I'm an IBM employee, but my opinions are my own and I'm just using public data.
Tempest1981 5y ago
Ah, ok. I didn't know if the IBM relationship with Samsung was exclusive. Sounds like no.

acomjean 5y ago

I worked at ibm research last century. They spent 6 billion on research. They had a chip fab in the building and still were making chips at the time. They had a wide range of researchers (mathematicians, physicists , software). working on all sorts of stuff (very motivated). Lots of cooling gasses. The problem was trying to turn those inventions into something they could sell. Chip tech was sold to whoever they could.