The Evolution of Personal Computers

Personal computers can now do more than just simple calculations.

John W. Mauchly, who worked with the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, coined the term "personal computer" in the 1960s, according to the University of Pennsylvania. A personal computer is a machine intended for individual use that receives and provides information, calculates and manipulates data. Original computers, called mainframes, were so large that they filled up much of the space in a room. Technology eventually evolved to the point that microprocessors were invented, making it possible for personal computers to become a common business and household item.

The Start of the Computer Industry

According to the Computer History Museum, in 1970, the Kenbak-1 was the first personal computer made. It did not have a microprocessor, and sold for $750. It was not able to run applications, only had 256 bytes of memory and had an 8-bit word size. According to American Heritage, the Datapoint 2200 followed. This personal computer had a small screen, a keyboard and was the size of a typewriter. Its microprocessor was similar to the later Intel 8008.

IBM later released the IBM 5100, which was followed by the Altair 8800 in 1975. According to The Virtual Altair Museum, the Altair 8800 used a single-chip microprocessor, cost $400 and used a CP/M operating system that was loaded from floppy disk.

The "Trinity"

1977 was called the year of the "trinity" by "Byte" magazine, according to Software City. This year is when the PET 2001, Apple II and TRS-80 were released to the public and millions of these computers were sold. The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a single-board computer that had a small keyboard, a monitor that displayed 40x25 character graphics and cassette drive.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer and released the more poplar Apple II. Its screen displayed color graphics and had a full QWERTY keyboard. The Apple II's original operating system used a BASIC interpreter in ROM, according to Ars Technica.

The TRS-80 had a motherboard and keyboard separate from the power supply and monitor. Ars Technica states that even though the PET and Apple II computers were superior, the TRS-80 had the advantage of being sold at a popular, nation-wide franchised electronic store for $599.

Home Computers

Personal computers started to fill homes in the 1980s. Atari and Texas Instruments jumped into the market at this time, but IBM turned out to be one of the big winners of the time with the IBM PC, released in 1981. Consumers liked that third parties could develop for IBM PC and that it used an audio cassette for external storage.

IBM, PC Clones and Apple Computers

By 1983, IBM had significantly improved upon its PC with the IBM XT, which had more card slots, a 10MB hard drive and a 640K memory. The IBM came with PC-DOS, which Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer helped develop. According to the University of San Diego, PC-DOS was eventually sold by Microsoft and was renamed "MS-DOS." As a result, several companies began to make and sell computers that ran MS-DOS, such as the Hewlett-Packard HP-150, the ACT Apricot, the Seequa Chameleon and Compaq Deskpro.

During this time, Apple computers sold the Lisa and the Macintosh, which had graphical user interfaces. They were the first personal computers to use a mouse. "Mac" computers became popular for their desktop publishing program such as LaserWriter and Aldus PageMaker, and the word-processing program, MacWrite.

Multimedia Personal Computers

The 1990s brought innovations to personal computers such as the CD ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) that could play music and run computer games and programs from CDs. CD RW (Re-Writable) drives were installed into computers in the late 1990s, which let individuals copy one CD to another. Plug-and-play connectivity features also became popular during this time, according to the Chronology of Personal Computers, which allowed PC users to use cameras, printers, scanners and flash drives from their computers. In addition, computers could connect to the Internet via a telephone cable, and individuals were able to watch DVD movies on their PCs. Presently, personal computer technology has evolved to the point that computers are as small as a high school text book, can wirelessly connect to the Internet and other devices, and can make telephone calls.

References

• University of Pennsylvania: John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer
• The Virtual Altair Museum
• Computer History Museum
• American Heritage: The Man Who Invented the PC
• Software City: History of Software City: 1980-2000

Resources

• Ars Technica: Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures
• University of San Diego, The Evolution of the Computer
• Chronology of Personal Computers