A history of personal computers

A personal computer (PC) is usually a microcomputer whose price, size, and capabilitiesmake it suitable for personal usage. The term was popularized by IBM marketing

Time share "terminals" to central computers were sometimes used before the advent of the PC.
(A smart terminal — televideo ASCII character mode terminal made around 1982.)
Before their advent in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the only computers one might have
used if one were privileged were "computer-terminal based" architectures owned by large
institutions. In these, the technology was called "computer time share systems", and used
minicomputers and main frame computers. These central computer systems frequently required
large rooms — roughly, a handball-court-sized room could hold two to three small minicomputers
and its associated peripherals, each housed in cabinets much the size of three refrigerators side by
side (with blinking lights and tape drives). In that era, mainframe computers occupied whole floors;
a big hard disk was a mere 10–20 Megabytes mounted on a cabinet the size of a small chest-type
freezer. Earlier PCs were generally called desktop computers, and the slower Pentium-based
personal computer of the late 1990s could easily outperform the advanced minicomputers of that
era.
Since the terms "personal computer" and "PC" have been introduced to vernacular language,
their meanings and scope have changed somewhat. The first generations of personal
microcomputers were usually sold as kits or merely instructions, and required a somewhat skilled
person to assemble and operate them. These were usually called microcomputers, but personal
computer was also used. Later generations were sometimes interchangeably called by the names "home computer" and "personal computer." By the mid-1980s, "home computer" was becoming a
less common label in favor of "personal computer." These computers were pre-assembled and
required little to no technical knowledge to operate. In today's common usage, personal computer
and PC usually indicate an IBM PC compatible. Because of this association, some manufacturers of
personal computers that are not IBM PCs avoid explicitly using the terms to describe their products.
Mostly, the term PC is used to describe personal computers that use Microsoft Windows operating
systems.


A four-megabyte RAM card measuring about 22 by 15 inches; made for the VAX 8600
minicomputer (circa 1986). Dual in-line package (DIP) Integrated circuits populate nearly the
whole board; the RAM chips are in the majority located in the rectangular areas to the left and right.
One early use of "personal computer" appeared in a 3 November 1962, New York Times article
reporting John W. Mauchly's vision of future computing as detailed at a recent meeting of the
American Institute of Industrial Engineers. Mauchly stated, "There is no reason to suppose the
average boy or girl cannot be master of a personal computer." [1] Some of the first computers that
might be called "personal" were early minicomputers such as the LINC and PDP-8. By today's
standards they were very large (about the size of a refrigerator) and cost prohibitive (typically tens
of thousands of US dollars), and thus were rarely purchased by an individual. However, they were
much smaller, less expensive, and generally simpler to operate than many of the mainframe
computers of the time. Therefore, they were accessible for individual laboratories and research
projects. Minicomputers largely freed these organizations from the batch processing and
bureaucracy of a commercial or university computing center.
In addition, minicomputers were relatively interactive and soon had their own operating
systems. Eventually, the minicomputer included VAX and larger minicomputers from Data
General, Prime, and others. The minicomputer era largely was a precursor to personal computer
usage and an intermediary step from mainframes.
Development of the single-chip microprocessor was an enormous catalyst to the
popularization of cheap, easy to use, and truly personal computers. Arguably the first true "personal
computer" was the Altair 8800, which brought affordable computing to an admittedly select market
in the 1970s. However, it was arguably this computer that spawned the development of both Apple
Computer as well as Microsoft, spawning the Altair BASIC programming language interpreter,
Microsoft's first product. The first generation of microcomputers (computers based on a
microprocessor) that appeared in the mid-1970s, due to the success of the Steve Wozniak-designed
Apple Computer release, the Apple II, were usually known as home computers. These were less
capable and in some ways less versatile than large business computers of the day. They were
generally used by computer enthusiasts for learning to program, running simple office/productivity
applications, electronics interfacing, and general hobbyist pursuits.
It was the launch of the VisiCalc spreadsheet, initially for the Apple II (and later for the
Atari 8-bit family, Commodore PET, and IBM PC) that became the "killer app" that turned the
microcomputer into a business tool. This was followed by the August 1981 release of the IBM PC
which would revolutionize the computer market. The Lotus 1-2-3, a combined spreadsheet (partly
based on VisiCalc), presentation graphics, and simple database application, would become the PC's
own killer app. Good word processor programs would also appear for many home computers, in
particular the introduction of Microsoft Word for the Apple Macintosh in 1985 (while earlier
versions of Word had been created for the PC, it became popular initially through the Macintosh). In the January 3, 1983 issue of Time magazine the personal computer was named the "Machine of
the Year" or its Person of the Year for 1982. During the 1990s, the power of personal computers
increased radically, blurring the formerly sharp distinction between personal computers and multiuser
computers such as mainframes. Today higher-end computers often distinguish themselves from
personal computers by greater reliability or greater ability to multitask, rather than by brute CPU
ability.