It is Friday, 30 years since IBM first personal computer produced today: the IBM 5150. A particular feature of this home was its modular structure, and the fact that IBM is the technical specifications of the device openbaarmaakte.
The development of the 5150 was led by IBM employee, Don Estridge, who led a group of twelve technicians. The group had the aim of a simple computer to build that people could use and not more than $ 1500 it would cost.
To reduce the cost decided Estridge the 5150 to build from existing hardware. Until then, IBM had almost every component of every device that made self-developed. For the processor, turned the company into Intel’s 8088 chip in the 5150 at a speed of 4,77 MHz clocked. The system, depending on the configuration, 16 or 64KB of ram, and for storage could be used for 5.25″floppy’s or cassettes. A hard drive was not there.
The optional monitor IBM had earlier for other purposes are developed, and the system was compatible with a dot-matrix printer of Epson. IBM signed a deal with Microsoft for the delivery of an operating system: MS-DOS. Microsoft had this system earlier that year taken from the company Seattle Computer Products, where it was known as 86-DOS.
IBM made the specifications of its new system, the public, and competitors soon with their own variations came. So was the IBM PC is a de facto standard in the computer industry. Manufacturers laid emphasis on the fact that their devices ‘IBM compatible’, so that consumers and businesses knew that their existing software would work.
Because builders of ‘IBM PC Compatibles’ faster innovated and IBM failed to deliver the pace of the market, it was the beginning of years ’90 rapidly worse, with the company leading to large losses led. In the mid-nineties, knew the company from red figures to climb, partly because the focus is less on hardware and more on software was. Eventually, it was the pc division in 2005 to Lenovo sold.
