IBM\'s Stretch project In 1956, a group of computer scientists at IBM set out to
ID: 3855353 • Letter: I
Question
IBM's Stretch project
In 1956, a group of computer scientists at IBM set out to build the world's fastest supercomputer. Five years later, they produced the IBM 7030 -- a.k.a. Stretch -- the company's first transistorized supercomputer, and delivered the first unit to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1961. Capable of handling a half-million instructions per second, Stretch was the fastest computer in the world and would remain so through 1964.
Nevertheless, the 7030 was considered a failure. IBM's original bid to Los Alamos was to develop a computer 100 times faster than the system it was meant to replace, and the Stretch came in only 30 to 40 times faster. Because it failed to meet its goal, IBM had to drop Stretch's price to $7.8 million from the planned $13.5 million, which meant the system was priced below cost. The company stopped offering the 7030 for sale, and only nine were ever built.
That wasn't the end of the story, however. "A lot of what went into that effort was later helpful to the rest of the industry," said Turing Award winner and Stretch team member Fran Allen at a recent event marking the project's 50th anniversary. Stretch introduced pipelining, memory protection, memory interleaving and other technologies that have shaped the development of computers as we know them.
Lesson learned
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Even if you don't meet your project's main goals, you may be able to salvage something of lasting value from the wreckage.
Question:
Based on the components of an effective communication plan: stakeholder analysis, information needs, sources of information, dissemination modes, and responsibility and timing.
Outline a brief communication plan, outlining each of the above components. Give one way in which a different or more effective communication plan may have prevented failure in the IBM's Stretch project.
Explanation / Answer
since we all know,IBM is and has alwasy been the biggest company in providing new and fast computers. and In 1956, a group of computer scientists at IBM set out to build the world's fastest supercomputer. Five years later, they produced the IBM 7030 -- a.k.a. Stretch -- the company's first transistorized supercomputer, and delivered the first unit to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1961. Capable of handling a half-million instructions per second, Stretch was the fastest computer in the world and would remain so through 1964.
but as we know that the stretch failed,one of the main reason behind the failure could be the communication differences amongst the emloyees,who failed to communicate properly,and secondly it could be that ,they must have failed in keeping there idea secretly and that could have helped the other company in stealing the ideas and developing the same product with ease and more effecient way.
if IBM would have made well communicated plans,they could have saved the stretch,and could have improved it to be the fastest.