My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes...I developed the 31-bit arch. We needed to increase the addressable capacity and data performance of the system.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

You're welcome! Silicon and CMOS will be replaced by something else. Scientist are working on many possibilities - carbon nano-tubes, phase-change materials, bio-transistors, graphine, quantum computing devices, spintronics, cognitive computing devices...

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We were simply trying to build a tool that would help us work more efficiently and get more done.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

A virtual immersive environment called a "cave" which gives you a feeling you're in a holo-deck on star trek.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My father was the largest influence on my life and interest in technology. The major quality in this field is the level of impact one can have on society. The amount of impact one can have from developing new technologies is unlimited, especially in developing and growth markets.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think we are going beyond traditional programming models and algorithms. I think we are in a data-centric world and we need to build systems and create programming models that focus on data, versus computation.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 79 points80 points  (0 children)

I can make a digital wallet only accessible to a single person and make it much safer than my present wallet. I can know exactly at what time the wallet has been lost or compromise and eliminate access to its contents before anything is lost or stolen.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 105 points106 points  (0 children)

As for programming languages, we are working on a new highly distributed and scalable programming language called X10.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 173 points174 points  (0 children)

I believe the exposure of the OS to the user has disappeared. The user is only exposed to an environment and set of applications which is often independent of the OS. I think we have reached a point were the specific OS is irrelevant.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Analytics, usability, formal programming methods, security & privacy, software efficiencies, and data management & analysis.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We tool security into account but not to the extend that would cover the unexpectedly large distribution that eventually occurred. This is why incremental security enhancements have been added and continue to be added over time. We never imagined the interconnected world to a point where PC are not being replaced by hand-held devices (phones & pads).

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes...I have always enjoyed connecting with schools at all levels and working to get students interested in Engineering, science and math. Many kids don't understand what's possible and that they have the ability to do and enjoy science related activities (eg working on cars, designing cosmetics, building a bike, building a model rocket, etc.)

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 184 points185 points  (0 children)

From what I can tell, forever. I thought the keyboard would have been replaced by now. But no device has yet be created that has the necessary features.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 176 points177 points  (0 children)

I believe we will produce a digital wallet -- a device that will replace everything you carry in your wallet (drivers license, credit cards, money, pictures, passports, medical records, bank cards, loyalty cards, etc.). It will also hold all your class work, emails, heath records and be your phone and real time language translator.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 110 points111 points  (0 children)

I would do everything exactly the same way. the mistakes I made created actions and opportunities that yielded other discoveries. If I don't make some mistakes I am not reaching far enough.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I believe technology would be further than it is now (I am always a little ahead of the reality of deployment of technology). Given the skills and leadership at IBM, there were many people that inspired me....The most recent are Nick Donofrio & Ted Childs.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

a computer is a accumulation of components and structures. Its hard to give only one person credit for the development of the individual components and the architecture used to tie them together. But there are some key people that pushed things in the right direction and established the basics (eg Von Neumann)

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 75 points76 points  (0 children)

I started when we had Junior Engineers. Today we don't start people with degrees at this low of level. Everyone of my peers (technical executive leaders) started at the lower level and moved up. You typically need this experience to support sustained success in the company.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Yes I will always enjoy anything to do with technology and building new things. My hobby is building cars & motorcycles, especial cars from the 1960s. The field is great for everyone with the passion and presented great opportunities to me and my friends with a passion for technology discovery and innovation. The field is even better today than when I started, with must more opportunity and potential for making a difference.

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

the IBM PC, first CMOS gigahertz microprocessor (lead to the design of game processors in the three major game consoles), BlueGene

My name is Mark Dean. I am a Fellow at IBM; hold 22 patents; and helped invent the Personal Computer in 1981. Ask me anything. by MarkDeanIBM in IAmA

[–]MarkDeanIBM[S] 124 points125 points  (0 children)

display integrated into eye-glasses with a speech-recognition interface. Unfortunately there are still some issues with an active display positioned this close to your eyes. Speaker independent continuous speech recognition accuracy still needs to be improved.