Games - IBM PC

	Games - IBM PC

The IBM PC™ (Personal Computer), was the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It was introduced on August 11, 1981. The original model was designated the IBM 5150. It was created by a team of 12 engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge of the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida.

The phrase "personal computer" was common currency before 1981, and was used as early as 1972 to characterize Xerox PARC's Alto. However, due to the success of the IBM PC, what had been a generic term came to mean specifically a microcomputer compatible with IBM's specification.

During the second quarter of 2005, the Chinese Lenovo Group secured the rights to produce IBM branded personal computers. This move reflects IBM's present lack of interest in the personal computer in favor of the server/mainframe markets, as well as providing business consulting and IT services markets.

Note the following distinctions within the general subject of personal computers :

For details on "PC compatible" computers (aka "PC clones" or just "PC"s, and making up the majority of today's computers), see IBM PC compatible
For a discussion of generic "personal computers", see personal computer
For details of the second generation of microcomputers, which largely died out with the Personal Computer revolution, see home computer

The IBM PC concept

The original PC was an IBM attempt to get into the home computer market then dominated by the Apple II and a host of CP/M machines.

Rather than going through the usual IBM design process, which had already failed to design an affordable microcomputer (for example the failed IBM 5100), a special team was assembled with authorization to bypass normal company restrictions and get something to market rapidly. This project was given the code name Project Chess.

The team consisted of just 12 people headed by William Lowe. They succeeded — development of the PC took about a year. To achieve this they first decided to build the machine with "off-the-shelf" parts from a variety of different original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and countries. Previously IBM had developed their own components. Second they decided on an open architecture so that other manufacturers could produce and sell compatible machines — the IBM PC compatibles, so the specification of the ROM BIOS was published. IBM hoped to maintain their position in the market by royalties from licensing the BIOS, and by keeping ahead of the competition.

Unfortunately for IBM, other manufacturers rapidly reverse engineered the BIOS to produce their own royalty-free versions. Compaq Computer Corporation announced the first cloned IBM PC compatible in November 1982 (it did not ship until March 1983) — the Compaq Portable
. Not only was it the first IBM-PC compatible computer not manufactured by IBM, it was also the first ever IBM-PC compatible portable computer.

Once the IBM PC became a commercial success the PC came back under the usual IBM management control, with the result that competitors had little trouble taking the lead from them. (In this regard, IBM's tradition of "rationalizing" their product lines—deliberately restricting the performance of lower-priced models in order to prevent them from "cannibalizing" profits from higher-priced models—worked against them).

Commercial success

The first IBM PC was released on August 11 1981. Although not cheap, at a base price of $1,565 it was affordable for businesses — and it was business that purchased the PC. However it was not the corporate "computer department" that was responsible for this, for the PC was not seen as a 'proper' computer. It was generally well educated middle managers that saw the potential — once the revolutionary VisiCalc spreadsheet, the "killer app", had been ported to the PC. Reassured by the IBM name, they began buying the machines on their own budgets to help do the calculations they had learned at business school.

IBM PC models

The models of IBM's first-generation Personal Computer (PC) series have names:

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for IBM PC ]

Games - IBM PC

The IBM PC concept

Commercial success

IBM PC models

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