A brief history of the computer

PC GONE MAD

Founded in 1911, IBM had been instrumental in the development and production of electronic computers since their earliest days, and in 1975 had produced its first desktop microcomputer – the IBM 5100. While this was very expensive, the company wanted to go head-to-head with Commodore, Apple and Atari in the growing market for home sales, and convened a special team to produce something more competitive.

IBM’s first desktop computer – the 5100

With permission to do things quickly and in new ways, the team made a series of decisions that would not only keep costs and time to a minimum, but which also proved fundamental to the computer’s success. They used off-the-shelf components, including Intel’s 8088 processor and a pre-existing IBM monitor and Epson printer, and also settled on an open architecture – documenting the system and encouraging third-parties to produce compatible expansion boards and software. This was a contrast to most other proprietary approaches, and helped ensure that compatible products were available within weeks of the PC’s August 1981 introduction.

IBM’s engineers didn’t fully predict another side of their open approach. With the computer’s circuit schematics and other information available to developers, and with the processor and other key components not exclusive to IBM, the computer was susceptible to being copied. By June 1982, Columbia Data Products had legally reverse-engineered IBM’s BIOS, produced their own copy and begun selling an IBM PC clone – compatible with the same hardware and software as the original, but cheaper.

While this was bad news for IBM, which was powerless to stop a growing number of compatible systems competing with its own, it ultimately helped to establish the PC as the platform for the majority of home computers. It happened slowly, however. The home computer market was strong and diverse in the first years of the 1980s, and at more than $1,500 (roughly £2,200 in today’s money) the original PC was too expensive compared to rivals selling for less than half as much. Though designed as a home computer, it initially only sold well to businesses, with just 13,000 shipped by the end of 1981.

IBM continued to develop the PC, releasing the XT with a 10MB internal hard disk just 18 months later, and the more competitively priced PCjr in November 1983, but other factors would help to pave the way for the platform’s mainstream uptake. Commodore had bought the company that made the chips for its C64 and began an incredible price war that drew in almost all home computer makers. While it helped make the C64 the best-selling home computer model ever, it also destabilised many in the industry and helped precipitate a collapse. By 1984, Atari and Commodore were the only major survivors of the price war and both were in a parlous financial state. Users began to gravitate to IBM PC compatibles and Apple’s Macintosh. By the end of 1984 IBM had sold half a million PCs.