Happy 60th Birthday, IBM Research!

You brought us everything from DRAM to the relational database, and some cool stuff like fractals besides.

And now, hey, you get the senior citizen discount on coffee at Dunkin' Donuts! (The AARP invite is in the mail.)

Originally housed in a renovated fraternity house at Columbia University, the then-named Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory has become one of the pre-eminent technological research centers in the world--and it has given IBM an edge over competitors in many fields.

Five IBM employees have won Nobel Prizes for, among other achievements, the discovery of electron tunneling and the invention of a microscope that captures images of individual atoms. Add to that seven National Medals of Technology, five National Medals of Science and four A.M. Turing Awards.

IBM Research turns 60 (TechRepublic/CNET News)