This IBM physicist is working to reduce the cost of data processing even more – before some other company does. (Nov, 1967)

This IBM physicist is working to reduce the cost of data processing even more – before some other company does.

Back in 1950, the cost of processing 35 thousand computer instructions was one dollar. Today, one dollar processes 35 million instructions.

What has driven the cost down? The work being done by IBM’s Dr. Sol Triebwasser and his associates may give us a clue.

In an oven and camera-filled laboratory, physicist Triebwasser and his colleagues are developing new methods to make the microscopic parts inside a computer even smaller.

“Smaller parts mean faster computer speeds because the electronic impulses travel a shorter distance—more work in less time.

“In the last ten years,” says Dr.Triebwasser, “competitive research in the industry has taken computers from bulky vacuum tubes to transistors so tiny that 50,000 of them would fit in a thimble. As the parts have shrunk, so have processing costs.

“And we must find ways to make data processing even more economical. In today’s competitive world, we can’t afford not to.”

IBM