IBM PC HISTORY

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Saturday, 05 March 2005.

This site -
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm
carried some words about the 'beginning' of the machine
that will carry this new OS, DOS -

Inventors of the Modern Computer
The History of the IBM PC - International Business Machines
IBM PC Inventors of the Modern Computer Series

<quote>
By Mary Bellis
In July of 1980, IBM representatives met for the first time with Microsoft's Bill Gates to talk about writing an operating system for IBM's new hush-hush "personal" computer. IBM had been observing the growing personal computer market for some time. They had already made one dismal attempt to crack the market with their IBM 5100. At one point, IBM considered buying the fledgling game company Atari to commandeer Atari's early line of personal computers. However, IBM decided to stick with making their own personal computer line and developed a brand new operating system to go with. The secret plans were referred to as "Project Chess". The code name for the new computer was "Acorn". Twelve engineers, led by William C. Lowe, assembled in Boca Raton, Florida, to design and build the "Acorn". On August 12, 1981, IBM released their new computer, re-named the IBM PC. The "PC" stood for "personal computer" making IBM responsible for popularizing the term "PC".

The first IBM PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor. The PC came equipped with 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k. The PC came with one or two 160k floppy disk drives and an optional color monitor. The price tag started at $1,565, which would be nearly $4,000 today. What really made the IBM PC different from previous IBM computers was that it was the first one built from off the shelf parts (called open architecture) and marketed by outside distributors (Sears & Roebucks and Computerland). The Intel chip was chosen because IBM had already obtained the rights to manufacture the Intel chips. IBM had used the Intel 8086 for use in its Displaywriter Intelligent Typewriter in exchange for giving Intel the rights to IBM's bubble memory technology.

Less than four months after IBM introduced the PC, Time Magazine named the computer "man of the year"

Next Chapter > The Birth of an Operating System - MS-DOS
</quote>

My 2004 'IBM-PC' probably has NO 'IBM' built parts - Here is what you can get today - in Australian Dollars

PRO-1 - Puchased Spetember, 2004 - Sydney, Australian Dollars

SYSTEM Intel P4 3.0 GHz 283
MOTHERBOARD Ausu P4 P800S 180
MEMORY 512 MB DDR 119
CASE ATX 72
FLOPPY DRIVE 1.44 MB Floppy 19
HARD DRIVE 120 GB IDE 7200 132
CD DRIVE DVD R / CD RW Combo 126
VIDEO CARD GeForce FX 5200 128MB 97
SOUND SYSTEM 32-Bit PCI (included $21)
NETWORK CARD 10/100 Ethernet (included $18)
MODEM 56K PCI V.90 24
DISPLAY 17" CRT /w speaker/mike 215
KEYBOARD QWERTY (english) 12
MOUSE Logitech - laser 8
OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft Windows XP SP2 (Home) 158
ANTI-VIRUS Vet - 12 months 50
TOTAL 1495

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Here is an image of one of the first computers I worked on, from OKI Data - http://www.oki.com/en/profile/his5.html


An if800/20 from OKI Data, Japan

This image, and many more, can be seen at - http://www.ipsj.or.jp/katsudou/museum/computer/4030_e.html

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