IBM Opens Florida Product Research Lab

IBM has opened a $38-million research and development laboratory here designed to help it introduce more products more quickly into the fast-growing personal computer market.

“We are blurring the lines between software and hardware, and trying to build teamwork,” said lab director Paul Mugge.

The lab’s 1,600 employees consolidate teams that had been scattered over 42 buildings. The lab site had been used by manufacturing operations that moved to North Carolina in 1989.

Two of the first products under development are a long-awaited laptop computer and an advanced version of IBM’s OS/2 operating system software. IBM is expected to introduce a laptop computer next month.