Created by John Backus, it soon becomes the most widely used computer programming language for technical work. 1958 - SAGE . Built under contract to MIT's Lincoln Laboratories for the North American Air Defense System, Sage was the first system to operate in real time. IBM moves its research headquarters from Manhattan to Westchester County, New York. The Thomas J. Watson Research Center, which now has laboratories in the Yorktown Heights and nearby Hawthorne is IBM's largest research facility.
Research here is centers on semiconductors, computer science, physical science and mathematics.
The world of computing is forever changed when IBM debuts the first compatible family of computers in which software and peripherals work seamlessly. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan presents Dennard with the National Medal of Technology. DRAM chips based on Dennard's invention still reign as a dominant form of computer memory. A scientist at IBM Research, Benoit B. Mandelbrot, published a paper in Science introducing fractal geometry - the concept that seemingly irregular natural shapes, such as the branching of trees, have the same form when viewed from close up or from far away. In the 30 years since they were first identified, the study of fractals has brought new insight to a wide variety of fields, including mathematics, physics, earth sciences, economics and the arts.