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Reports on IBM Corp.'s development of Kraken, a 20 teraflop supercomputer. Comparison with the Blue Ocean supercomputer; Construction cost and schedule; Enabling of researchers to improve their modeling of oceans and weather.

Reports on plans by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to introduce server computers that behave more like mainframes and are priced as low as 1,500 dollars. Capabilities of such servers; Company's goal to ship the first of the server computers in May 2004; Claim by IBM that its technology promises to simplify the management of corporate data centers and improve the utilization rates of the server computers that run those data centers.

Presents the author's experience with computers. Purchase of his first home computer; His choice of an IBM computer; How computers were changing; Description of the computer and its operating system; His switch to a Macintosh computer.

Focuses on how computer company IBM plans to invest money in designing self-managing computers and networking products. How the plan, called Project Eliza, will focus on research in autonomous computing; Need for this type of computer; Challenge of designing computers for an Internet-driven economy.

States that computer and consumer electronics manufacturers invest considerable time and money exploring design ideas. Most radical departure from the computing norm; Account of the development of the cyberphone from IBM; Distinguishing feature of the chameleon project of IBM which crosses a notebook computer with a desktop computer.