IBM Corp is finally sloughing off the accumulation of thick skins that created a company in which the various computer divisions competed more fiercely with one another than with outside competitors, and has created a new Systems Technology & Architecture Division under one of its most highly-regarded young executives, Phil Hester, 39, to develop common core hardware technologies and set architectural standards for all the company’s computer divisions above personal computers. Marking another big break with the past, in which almost anything regarded as really important was headquartered in New York state, the new unit will be based at Hester’s present location, Austin, Texas.The division is expected to take over about 1,100 employees from other parts of the company who will remain in Austin, Rochester, Minnesota, and Endicott and Poughkeepsie, New York, but transfer their allegiance to the new unit. The division will be responsible for developing processor and memory subsystems for use by what the company is now calling its server divisions, although it includes mainframes, and will define architectural standards for IBM servers and co-ordinate development of common hardware subsystems, although the Large Scale Computing mainframe, AS/400 and RS/6000 units will maintain product development responsibilities and brand identities. Hester had most recently been vice-president for systems and technology for the RS/6000 division.
