In February 1990, IBM introduced the RISC
System/6000 -- a family of nine workstations that
were among the fastest and most powerful in the
industry. The RS/6000 uses Reduced Instruction Set
Computer technology, an innovative computer design
pioneered by IBM that simplifies processing steps
to speed the execution of commands, and Advanced
Interactive Executive (AIX), IBM's implementation
of the UNIX operating system. Throughout the 1990s,
IBM continued to expand and enhance the RS/6000
family with new models offering ever-more speed
and number-crunching power, including the RS/6000
SP line of supercomputers. SPs have been used in
such tasks as improving weather and climate forecasting,
("Blackforest"), simulating nuclear explosions
and defeating World Chess Champions (Deep Blue).
This view shows an IBM 9076 SP in 1996. (VV1002)
For a brief history of the RS/6000, visit our online: