THE 1980s: THE PC OFFI CIALLY LAUNCHES
Rivals were unfazed by the old timer’s new machine, but had no idea what was about to hit them
After a 12-month development, IBM announced its new Personal Computer on August 12, 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).
Rivals such as RadioShack and Apple were unconcerned, as they had many times more dealers, large support networks, extensive software libraries, cheaper products, and models with better performance. 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 recognize 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 bestselling desktop computer. In 1983, two thirds of corporate customers standardized 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 subindustry 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 anymore), it came with 256KB of RAM, expandable up to 16MB. Initial models were limited to CGA and monochrome, but IBM’s new 16-color EGA standard was soon introduced, allowing for 16 colors at 640x350. This was another step toward the PC we recognize now, with things like standardized drive bays, motherboard mounting points, and the basic keyboard layout we now take for granted.
THE IBM-COMPATIBLES 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 sporting a 20MHz CPU, 2MB of RAM, and a 115MB hard disk. This was a landmark computer, standardizing 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 colors, and a low-res mode of 320x200 in 256 colors, 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 the public started referring instead to “IBM-compatibles.”
Although the PC was sweeping America, in many regions worldwide micros were still wildly popular— Europe was particularly enamored of 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 kick-start the next decade. The first computer to ship was IBM’s 486/25 Power Platform in October, making it the most powerful machine on the market.
However, 486 machines wouldn’t enter most households until the 1990s—286s were still the order of the day, and many brands were still making budget XT clones. Where a 386 was considered the height of sophistication, a 486 was witchcraft. Nevertheless, the ’80s were a time of astonishing technological progress: 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.