Twenty five years of the IBM PC

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Claudio Gutierrez <claudio.gutierrez.m () gmail com>
Date: August 11, 2006 10:04:20 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Twenty five years of the IBM PC

Computer firm IBM made technological history on 12 August 1981 with
the announcement of a personal computer - the IBM 5150.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4780963.stm

Costing $1,565, the 5150 had just 16K of memory - scarcely more than a
couple of modest e-mails worth.

The machine was not the first attempt to popularise computing but it
soon came to define the global standard.

It altered the way business was done forever and sparked a revolution
in home computing.

"It's hard to imagine what people used to do with computers in those
days because by modern standards they really couldn't do anything,"
said Tom Standage, the Economist magazine's business editor told the
World Service's Analysis programme.

"But there were still things you could do with a computer that you
couldn't do without it like spreadsheets and word processing."

<snip>


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/