Okla-homey
8/12/2008, 06:31 AM
August 12, 1981: IBM's first PC is completed
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/1764/ibm275pxibmpc5150cy0.jpg
Operating system: IBM BASIC / PC-DOS 1.0
CP/M-86
UCSD p-System
CPU: Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz
Memory: 16 kB ~ 640 kB
27 years ago today, the International Business Machine Co. (IBM) introduces a computer for use by Joe Six-pack. By the early 1980s, the computer had shrunk from being a room-clogging behemoth to a relatively dainty machine that could fit on desks in homes and schools. So, IBM's introduction of its Personal Computer (PC) on August 12, 1981, didn't exactly signal a technical revolution. But that didn't stop Big Blue's PC from bursting onto the scene.
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4466/ibmpcbadgexv3.jpg
Their new product sold 136,000 units in its first year and a half of release, propelling the company's stock on an upward climb that peaked later in the decade. IBM had seemingly served notice to the computer industry: the granddaddy of business computing was making a break from the boardroom and looking to conquer America's homes.
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4875/ibm750pxibmfloppydrivewrn6.jpg
5 1/4 inch Diskette Drive with a partially inserted double-density diskette containing DOS 1.1.
Not as widely noticed was the fact that IBM's new machine was a pastiche of other company's components, including a processing chip courtesy of Intel and an operating system developed by a thirty-two person concern called Microsoft.
Eventually, IBM would not only be relying on other company's technology, but would be chasing them for profits. Though recent years have been a touch kinder to the company, the early 1990s saw IBM posting annual losses that sometimes ballooned up to $8 million.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/1764/ibm275pxibmpc5150cy0.jpg
Operating system: IBM BASIC / PC-DOS 1.0
CP/M-86
UCSD p-System
CPU: Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz
Memory: 16 kB ~ 640 kB
27 years ago today, the International Business Machine Co. (IBM) introduces a computer for use by Joe Six-pack. By the early 1980s, the computer had shrunk from being a room-clogging behemoth to a relatively dainty machine that could fit on desks in homes and schools. So, IBM's introduction of its Personal Computer (PC) on August 12, 1981, didn't exactly signal a technical revolution. But that didn't stop Big Blue's PC from bursting onto the scene.
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4466/ibmpcbadgexv3.jpg
Their new product sold 136,000 units in its first year and a half of release, propelling the company's stock on an upward climb that peaked later in the decade. IBM had seemingly served notice to the computer industry: the granddaddy of business computing was making a break from the boardroom and looking to conquer America's homes.
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4875/ibm750pxibmfloppydrivewrn6.jpg
5 1/4 inch Diskette Drive with a partially inserted double-density diskette containing DOS 1.1.
Not as widely noticed was the fact that IBM's new machine was a pastiche of other company's components, including a processing chip courtesy of Intel and an operating system developed by a thirty-two person concern called Microsoft.
Eventually, IBM would not only be relying on other company's technology, but would be chasing them for profits. Though recent years have been a touch kinder to the company, the early 1990s saw IBM posting annual losses that sometimes ballooned up to $8 million.