Here are some more entries.... The de facto standard width of 80 columns -- still respected in (for example) the latest version of Microsoft Windows when you open a command prompt.
The magnetic tape vacuum column. This innovation made data storage on tape viable. Tape storage is more popular than ever for long-term retention. All the major public commercial cloud vendors have vast tape storage estates. The floppy disk. This storage medium played a vital role in the PC revolution. Magnetic stripes on payment and other cards (such as ID cards). This innovation made electronic payments, ATMs, electronic hotel room door locks, employee badge readers, and so many other day-to-day interactions viable. EMV chips and contactless cards/devices are direct successors to the magnetic stripe. Excimer laser surgery, which made LASIK and many other precision surgical procedures possible. Automated tabulation and accounting (via a corporate ancestor) -- essentially the birth of the information technology industry. The relational database (and SQL). The first commercially available laser printer. (You can thank IBM for your clear, legible, and timely printed bank statements and utility bills.) The 8-bit byte. Various useful typefaces including Courier and most recently the IBM Plex family. Fantastic keyboards and keyboard layouts. They still inspire today's enthusiast mechanical keyboards for gamers and professional writers. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Generalized Markup Language (GML), the inspiration (via SGML) for Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) — the standard for Web pages. Online travel reservations (SABRE, Deltamatic, PANAMAC, etc.) ————— Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM Z/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific sipp...@sg.ibm.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
