CS378W, History of Computing
Week 13, Weekly Report
Due 2004 Nov 18
The IBM PC's role in the Emergence of Personal Computers
Bryant Tang
2004 Nov 18
The IBM Personal Computer was an important key in the personal computer revolution that swept through the world in the 1980s. Prior to that, computers were limited to massive room-sized supercomputers or relatively large microcomputers, something no average Joe had any hope of ever owning for his own use. All that changed when the personal computer made its first step into our world.
The original IBM PC model was designated the 5150, a small low-priced computer system that was actually designed for the average business, school or home (1). It first hit the market on August 12, 1981 at a base price of $1,565, a price point that made it affordable to the masses who had previously been without access to such computing power (1).
To bypass the company's usual design process in order to get a product into the market as swiftly as possible, a 12-man design team led by William C. Lowe developed the 5150 in about a year (2). In order to push out the 5150 at that speed, they resorted to using off-the-shelf parts from various other original equipment manufacturers instead of waiting to develop and produce their own parts in-house (2). As a result, the team decided to make the 5150's design an open architecture, meaning that other manufacturers could make machines that were IBM PC compatibles (2). With the release of the ROM BIOS, IBM intended to earn royalties from licensing the BIOS, but other manufacturers quickly reverse engineered their own versions of the BIOS in order to evade paying IBM any fees (2).
The term 'personal computer' was in common use prior to the release of the 5150 and was used to describe other similar machines, but it wasn't until the introduction of the IBM PC that the term became synonymous with computers that were specifically compatible with IBM's specifications (2). In fact, the definition of a personal computer holds true to the present day, where the IBM compatible machine has become a mainstay, showing itself in the form of both desktops and laptops around us.
Prior to the release of the 5150, the CP/M OS was the most prominent operating system in the marketplace. When IBM created the 5150, they approached Digital Research (the creators of CP/M) regarding the creation of an OS for the IBM PC (4). However, when Digital Research declined the offer due to a lack of interest, IBM asked a small company previously known for its work on programming languages to create an operating system for the 5150 (4). As fate would have it, that software firm turned out to be none other than latter day industry giant Microsoft (4)! Bill Gates, then the head of Microsoft, realized that his company wasn't capable of producing an entirely new operating system, so he bought the rights to QDOS, an operating system which actually bore a resemblance to CP/M (4). Continued development would lead to the introduction of the famous MS-DOS operating system that eventually resided on IBM PC clones everywhere.
As such, we can see how IBM's decision to design a product to challenge the then-dominant Apple II resulted in a machine that would ultimately define the entire industry. In making the IBM PC an open architecture, it set a standard that remains even till the modern era. Indeed, the 5150 has played an important role in the emergence of personal computers.
Notes
1. "Announcement of First IBM PC," http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/pcpress.pdf (IBM Archives, accessed 2004 Nov 17).
2. "IBM PC," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC (Wikipedia, accessed 2004 Nov 17).
3. "The History of the IBM PC," http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm (About.com, accessed 2004 Nov 17).
4. "IBM PC - Model 5150," http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=274 (Old-computers.com, accessed 2004 Nov 17).