History of the PC
In a world of competing processors and operating systems, John Knight explores how the PC began, what powers it and how it’s still going.
In part one of our series, John Knight explores how the PC began, what powers it and how it’s still going.
The PC; the personal computer; the Ibm-compatible. Whatever you want to call it, somehow it has maintained a dominant presence for nearly four decades.
If you try to launch any program written from the ’80s to the 2000s onwards, you have a good chance of getting it to launch: your PC has backward compatibility going right back to the ’70s, enabling you to run pieces of history as though they were from yesterday. In fact, your computer is brimming with heritage, from the way your motherboard is laid out to the size of your drive bays to the layout of your keyboard.
Flip through any PC magazine and you’ll see everything from bulky desktop computers to sleek business laptops; from expensive file servers to single-board devices only a few inches big. Somehow, all these machines are part of the same PC family, and somehow they can all talk to each other.
But where did all of this start? That’s what we’ll be examining: from the development of the PC to its launch in the early ’80s, as it fought off giants such as Apple, as it was cloned by countless manufacturers, and as it eventually went 32-bit. We’ll look at the ’90s and the start of the multimedia age, the war between the chip makers, and the establishment of Windows as the world’s leading but not best operating system.
But before we go anywhere, to understand the revolutionary nature of the PC you first need to grasp what IBM was at the time, and the culture that surrounded it.
IBM was formed in the early 20th century by people who invented the kind of punch-card machines and tabulators that revolutionised the previous century. IBM introduced Big Data to the US government, with its equipment keeping track of millions of employment records in the 1930s. It gave us magnetic swipe cards, the hard disk, the floppy disk and more. It would develop the first demonstration of AI, and be integral to NASA’S space programmes. IBM has employed five Nobel Prize winners, six Turing Award recipients, and is one of the world’s largest employers.
IBM’S mainframe computers dominated the ’60s and ’70s, and that grip on the industry gave IBM an almost instant association with computers in the minds of American consumers. But trouble was on the horizon. The late ’70s were saturated by ‘microcomputers’ from the likes of Apple, Commodore, Atari and Tandy. IBM was losing customers as giant mainframes made way for microcomputers.
IBM took years to develop anything, with endless layers of bureaucracy, testing every detail before releasing anything to market. It was a long way from offering simple and (relatively) affordable desktop computers, and didn’t even have experience with retail stores. Meanwhile, microcomputer manufacturers were developing new models in months, and there was no way IBM could keep up with traditional methods.
Assembling a crew
In August 1979, the heads of IBM met to discuss the growing threat of microcomputers, and its need to develop a personal computer in retaliation. They created a series of Independent Business Units, which were given a level of autonomy. One of these would soon be led by executive Bill Lowe, who would become the father of the PC.
In 1980, Lowe promised he could turn out a model within a year if he wasn’t constrained by IBM’S methods. Lowe’s initial research led him to Atari, which was keen to work for IBM as an OEM builder, proposing a machine based on the Atari 800 line. Lowe suggested IBM should acquire Atari, but it rejected the idea in favour of developing a new model instead.
This model was to be developed within the year, with Lowe given an independent team. This new squad, the Dirty Dozen – a group of IBM misfits – was allowed to do things however they saw fit to get the job done. The task was code-named Project Chess, with Lowe promising a working prototype in 30 days.
Lowe went for an open architecture. While dealers were very interested in an IBM machine, it just wouldn’t work if they had to operate within IBM’S proprietary methods. If dealers were going to repair these machines, they needed to be made from standard off-the-shelf parts.
By August, Lowe had a very basic prototype and a business plan that broke away from established IBM practice. Based on this new open architecture, the PC would use standard components and software, instead of IBM parts, and be sold via normal retail channels
Over the coming months, the Dirty Dozen grew exponentially in number and toiled away to transform the prototype into a world-class machine. They focused on giving the PC an excellent keyboard, which they delivered with the IBM Model F. It needed to be durable and reliable, so each key was rated to 100 million keystrokes. IBM was renowned for quality keyboards, and would try to replicate the feel of older beamspring terminal keyboards with a new Buckling Spring technology. These gave the keyboards the famous clacky sound and weighted feel that was popular with typists, giving a tactile feedback unrivaled at the time.
The PC’S keyboard alone would become the main selling point for a lot of customers, and IBM keyboards would be the best in the business for the next two decades. Next, the crew turned to the CPU. IBM’S own 801 RISC processor was considered (which would have been significantly more powerful), but for convenience and compatibility’s sake, the team chose the Intel 8088.
By choosing an 8088 processor over the superior 8086, technically the original IBM PC is only partly 16-bit. Both are internally 16-bit, but the difference is the 8088 had a cost-saving 8-bit bus. The simplified
8088 cost less, could be produced in higher quantities and reduced motherboard complexity – while a lot of the hardware likely to be used in the PC also had an 8-bit bus, so an 8088 would be better for compatibility.
As for the motherboard, RAM would be expandable up to 256KB, an optional 8087 maths co-processor would be available, and there would be five ISA expansion slots. Putting the machine together, launch models would have a choice of 16 or 64KB of RAM, space for two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives and a cassette jack for tape storage. Buyers had a choice of monochrome or CGA graphics, and the Intel 8088 powering the system would be running at 4.77MHZ.
With the hardware sorted, the burden of developing the operating system was largely outsourced to Microsoft, with IBM offering consumers the joint-venture PC DOS. The final machine was dubbed the IBM Model Number 5150. This moniker would be immediately forgotten, for in the minds of the press it was really IBM’S Personal Computer that was about to launch.
After a 12-month development, IBM announced its new Personal Computer on 12 August 1981. The $1,565 base model included 16KB of RAM, CGA graphics and an input jack, relying on the user to provide a cassette deck – disk drives were optional and far more expensive than tape.
Rivals such as Radioshack and Apple were unconcerned. Steve Jobs bought one to dissect and was unimpressed by some of its old-fashioned tech. In its hubris, Apple took out a full-page ad proclaiming “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.” But it failed to recognise the weight a company like IBM carried with businesses.
Even though IBM’S product was inferior in many ways to its cheaper competitors, businesses saw IBM as a safe bet, with excellent customer support. Within a year, the PC overtook the Apple II as the best-selling desktop computer. In 1983, two thirds of corporate customers standardised on the PC as their computer of choice, with only nine percent choosing Apple – and by 1984, the PC’S annual revenue had doubled Apple’s.
IBM surprised the industry by breaking its own traditions. Not only did it allow service training for nonibm personnel, but it published the PC’S tech specs and schematics to encourage third-party peripherals and software. Within a couple of years, the PC was the new standard for desktop computers, spawning a massive sub-industry of peripherals and expansions.
In 1982, the PC was updated to IBM’S XT (extended Technology) standard, removing the cassette jack and adding a 10MB hard disk. It was the first PC with a hard disk as standard. August 1984 brought IBM’S next major release, the PC/AT (Advanced Technology). Sporting a 6MHZ Intel 80286 (aka 286 – no one used the ‘80’ prefix any more), it came with 256KB of RAM, expandable up to 16MB. Initial models were limited to CGA and monochrome, but IBM’S new 16-colour EGA standard was soon introduced, allowing for 16 colours at 640x350. This was another step toward the PC we recognize now, with things like standardised drive bays, motherboard mounting points and the basic keyboard layout we now take for granted.
Although a hit with businesses, the first PC was too expensive for home users. The base model’s price wasn’t too outlandish, but it didn’t include a monitor or floppy drive; a decent 64KB model with a floppy drive and monitor was more than $3,000 (over $8,000 in today’s money). Rivals smelled opportunity, and with an open architecture, it wouldn’t be long before IBM clones would arrive.
Initially IBM wasn’t concerned. While a PC could be mostly replicated with retail parts, the BIOS belonged to
IBM, which guaranteed proper IBM compatibility. However, companies such as Award and American Megatrends reverse-engineered IBM’S BIOS, and companies such as Dell, Compaq and HP then used cloned BIOSES to build clone machines.
The first clone came from Columbia Data Products with 1982’s MPC 1600, but 1983 saw the landmark Compaq Portable, the first computer to be almost fully IBM compatible. Compaq used its own BIOS and provided a very different form factor to a desktop PC, with all the components in one box, including a small CRT monitor.
When IBM released its ill-fated budget Pcjr in 1984, Radioshack made a clone, the Tandy 1000. It was far more successful than the Pcjr, with better PC compatibility. After the Pcjr’s cancelation, existing software and peripherals came to be associated with the Tandy. Far cheaper clones were eroding IBM’S control of the market, with its share dropping from 76 percent in 1983 to 26 percent in 1986.
Enter the 386
At least IBM had the technological lead, but even that would be eroded when Compaq released 1986’s Deskpro 386. Intel had recently released its 32-bit 80386 CPU, but unfortunately for IBM, Compaq beat it to market with a 386 machine boasting 1MB of RAM and MS-DOS 3.1. This was two to five times faster than a 286, with a base price of $6,500. Compaq’s machines were the very top of the line, and would steal IBM’S title of business leader.
IBM fought back with 1987’s Personal System/2 (PS/2), finally releasing a 386 to market; the most powerful model sported a 20MHZ CPU, 2MB of RAM and a 115MB hard disk. This was a landmark computer, standardising on things such as a 1.44MB 3.5-inch floppy, and the PS/2 ports still used by mice and keyboards. However, the biggest leap was in the introduction of VGA graphics. On the desktop, this meant 640x480 in 16 colours, and a low-res mode of 320x200 in 256 colours, popular for gaming.
Despite the incredible advances, IBM continued to lose ground to the clones. Although the PS/2 line sold well for a time, IBM’S machines were still too expensive for the general public. As the ’80s progressed, the name ‘PC’ started losing its association with IBM, and people started referring instead to ‘Ibm-compatibles’.
Although the PC was sweeping America, in many regions worldwide micros were still wildly popular; Europe was particularly enamoured with the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. Where PCS were lacking in the GUI stakes, these Motorola 68000-based machines already had sophisticated GUIS and astonishing multimedia capabilities that would trounce PCS for some years – often at a fraction of the cost.
Nevertheless, the PC continued to grow and develop, with further advancements such as 800x600 SVGA (Super VGA) graphics in 1988. And the ’80s had one last trick up their sleeve: in April 1989, Intel released the 486, the powerhouse CPU that would kickstart the next decade. The first computer to ship was IBM’S 486/25 Power Platform in October, the most powerful machine on the market. We entered the decade with 8-bit micros and left with full 32-bit processors and SVGA graphics. It’s unlikely such rapid progress will be repeated.