IBM - TechEBlog

Parco HUB-001SR is IBM’s Motorized USB Hub Radio With a Sliding Door That You Probably Never Knew Existed

By Jackson Chung August 30, 2026

IBM never sold this as a catalog item, yet the logo sits on the case all the same. Parco Pacified Limited of Hong Kong built the HUB-001SR as a compact speaker dock that also works as a three-port USB 1.1 hub and an FM radio, then someone stamped IBM branding on a batch and handed units out as corporate gifts or show swag. The same plastic shell later turned up with a Bisty mark tied to Japanese pachinko prizes. You end up with a desk object that looks official until you notice the generic Chinese tooling and the motor that slides a cover open when you press it.

Rescuing IBM’s Rarest Desktop From Decades of Silence

By Jackson Chung August 14, 2026

Most people have never seen one. Most never will. Yet a compact computer from the late 1980s, stamped with an IBM type number almost no one recognizes, has drawn a small circle of restorers into years of careful work. Roman of Epictronics recently finished another round of repairs on one of them, the IBM 7496 Executive Workstation, turning a once-dead machine into something that boots, stores files, and even plays period sound.

IBM Home Director Let Aptiva Owners Automate Their Homes With Software and Power Lines Back in 1996

By Jackson Chung July 8, 2026

Personal computers had begun appearing in more homes by the middle of the 1990s. Most still served for work, games, or early internet browsing. IBM saw a chance to give those machines another job. The company introduced Home Director as a way for an Aptiva desktop to handle lights, appliances, and basic security routines without new wiring or professional help.

IBM Packs Nearly 100 Billion Transistors Into a Fingernail-Sized, Sub-1 Nanometer Chip by Stacking Them in Layers

By Jackson Chung June 25, 2026

Engineers at IBM crossed a long-standing boundary in semiconductor design this week. They produced working technology for chips with features smaller than one nanometer by arranging transistors in vertical stacks rather than laying everything out on a single flat plane.

Broken 1993 IBM ThinkPad Tablet (730T) Gets Restored, Can Run DOOM

By Jackson Chung January 30, 2025

Before the CrossPad, there was this IBM ThinkPad tablet from 1993. Called the 730T, it featured a 9.5″ monochrome supertwisted nematic (STN) VGA LCD screen with a 640 x 480 resolution, which isn’t ideal for gaming to say the least, especially DOOM.

Before the iPad, There was IBM’s CrossPad Electronic Notepad from 1998

By Jackson Chung December 10, 2023

Long before the first iPad, there was A. T. Cross Company x IBM’s CrossPad. Released in 1998, this electronic notepad came with a special pen that contained a small radio transmitter capable of telling the pad what and where something is written.

IBM Quantum System 2 Unveiled, Combines Cryogenic Infrastructure with Third-Generation Control Electronics

By Jackson Chung December 4, 2023

The IBM Quantum System 2 is the base for scalable quantum computation, and now fully operational at the company’s lab in Yorktown Heights, NY. It measures 22 feet wide, 12 feet high, and boasts three IBM Quantum Heron processors.

What a $6,149 IBM 7532 Industrial Computer from 1985 Looks Like

By Jackson Chung December 3, 2023

Back in the mid-1980s, things like an IBM 7532 Industrial Computer cost more than a brand new car, or $6,149 USD ($17,582 in 2023). Why? Well, first off, the personal computer was quite new technology at the time, thus the cost of building a computer was very high.

What it’s Like to Browse the Web on a 1980s IBM PC with MicroWeb

By Jackson Chung November 7, 2023

Yes, it’s possible to browse the internet on a 1980s 4.77MHz IBM PC running DOS with just 640KB of RAM, but you’ll need MicroWeb. The latter is essentially a web browser for DOS, and it uses a 16-bit real mode application, designed to run on minimal hardware.

Second-Generation Citizen CZ Smartwatch Has IBM and NASA Technology Used by Astronauts

By Jackson Chung January 4, 2023

You can’t use the second-generation Citizen CZ smartwatch like a desktop computer, but it does have IBM and NASA technology. More specifically, the CZ Smart YouQ application uses neural networks developed within the IBM Watson Studio workspace to learn and understand the wearer’s preferred timing of sleep and wake within 7-10 days.