From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boca_Raton,_Florida
In the late 1960s, Boca Raton became the southern home to the International Business Machines Corporation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM> (IBM). In 1965, well before the extension of I-95 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_95_in_Florida> into Southern Florida, IBM purchased several hundred acres of real estate just west of the CSX <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX> rail line, just northwest of Florida Atlantic University <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Atlantic_University> . Construction of IBM's main complex began in earnest in 1967, and the mammoth manufacturing and office complex was dedicated in March 1970. The campus was designed with self-sufficiency in mind, and to that end sported its own electrical substation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substation> , water pumping <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pumping> station, and rail-spur. Among other very noteworthy IT accomplishments, such as the mass manufacture of the System/360 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System/360> and development of the Series/1 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Series/1> mainframe computers, IBM's main complex was the birthplace of the IBM PC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC> , which later evolved into the IBM Personal System/2 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_System/2> . In 1987, IBM relocated their manufacturing for what became the IBM PC Company to Research Triangle Park <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle_Park> in Raleigh, North Carolina <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh%2C_North_Carolina> , and converted the cavernous manufacturing facilities into offices and laboratories, later producing ground-breaking products such as the OS/2 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2> operating system and VoiceType Dictation, known today as ViaVoice <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ViaVoice> voice-recognition software <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software> . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:T-Rex_Technology_Center_Fountain.JPG > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:T-Rex_Technology_Center_Fountain.JPG > T-REX Corporate Center was originally one of IBM's research labs where the IBM PC was created. It is located on Yamato Rd (NW 51st St), and stands next to the Boca Raton Tri-Rail <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Rail> Station. IBM maintained its facilities at Boca Raton until 1996, when the facility was closed and was sold to Blue Lake Real Estate, who in turn sold it to the T-REX Management Consortium. Today, T-REX has revitalized the facility and its surrounding real estate into a highly-successful and landscaped business/research park. What used to be IBM's Building 051, an annex separated from the former main IBM campus by Spanish River Boulevard was donated to the Palm Beach County School District and converted into Don Estridge High Tech Middle School <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Estridge_High_Tech_Middle_School> . It is named for Don Estridge <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Estridge> , whose team was responsible for developing the IBM PC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC> . IBM later returned in 2001 opening the current software development laboratory off Congress Avenue in July of that year. From: Benjamin Zachary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 11:04 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: OT: for old timers My office is moving into a building where IBM had a large R&D deployment. My old business partner's father worked there and told me it was where the first personal computer from IBM came from. I poked around on Google just for my own reading and didn't find anything about the personal computer coming from Boca Raton, FL. Just wondering if this is true, if so, kind of cool for notoriety I suppose. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
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