Tammy Bruce: Happy Birthday, IBM PC!

Happy Birthday, IBM PC!

A post by Maynard

Wow, it's been 25 years since IBM introduced the PC (on August 12th, 1981) and changed the world. The original PC box, costing slightly over $1500, had 16 kilobytes of memory and a tape cassette to store digital data. A floppy disk drive cost extra, and hard drives weren't available.

Something like this was bound to happen, with the new 16-bit microprocessor chips becoming available in quantity. It was an idea whose time had come. But IBM gets credit, because they did it and they made it stick. They created a standard that was open (meaning anyone could add to it) and mainstream (because it was endorsed by the biggest player in the universe). The IBM PC was an unusual IBM project, in that it utilized off-the-shelf parts rather than exotic proprietary technologies. Upon this foundation rests the subsequent history of cheap, ubiquitous computing.

For a computer to be useful and valuable, it needs two attributes: Power and connectivity, with the emphasis on the latter. In 1981, it was an amazing leap to have a smart machine of your very own. But connecting to other parts of the world required carrying a tape or floppy disk from machine to machine ("sneakernet", as it came to be called by techies). The true worth was to come as computers started to "talk" directly to each other. First came modems and local networks (LANs), followed by the wide area networks (WANs). Of course, the Internet is the biggest WAN conceivable, covering the entire planet. This is truly the stuff of science fiction. Doesn't "World Wide Web" sound like a sinister phrase from an old Buck Rogers serial?

The Internet was derived from the Arpanet ("Advanced Research Projects Agency Network"), which was a Defense Department-funded program linking mainframe computers at various Universities and government sites. The Arpanet was conceived in the mid-1960's, and it began operation on a small scale in 1969. This grew and was taken over in the 1980's by the National Science Foundation, thus becoming the NSFNet. In the 1990's, jurisdiction passed to the Internet Society, and service providers started to allow access to the masses. Thus the Internet evolved, and synergistically merged with the PC revolution.

By the way, some may recall Al Gore's ludicrous claim to have invented the Internet. Gore detractors take this as an opportunity to have a laugh at Mr. Gore's expense, while supporters flail and deny that's what Gore said. For the record, the quote by Gore, made during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, is: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." You can see the full transcript here. It does seem that the ex-Veep is laying it on a bit thick, although perhaps he did play some role as a Congressman in nurturing the evolution.

These days, PCs are more of a commodity than a leading-edge product. In 2004, IBM sold its line of PCs to a Chinese company. This is disturbing but understandable. IBM makes its living at the leading edge, where high value is created; not by manufacturing low-margin everyday products that anyone can compete with. So the revolution has evolved and moved on, but it still traces its roots to the PC.

Posted by Maynard · August 11, 2006 07:44 PM · Permalink
History | Maynard Post | Science & Technology

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Does it run on gas or diesel?

Trail-Mix

Posted by: go_navy505 at August 12, 2006 07:07 AM

That we think 16 MB is a small amount of memory shows how long ago this was.

The original PC had 16 *kilobytes* of memory, expandable up to 256 KB. Wow!

See a picture of an old IBM PC advertisement here (don't let the 'apple' throw you :):
http://apple.computerhistory.org/discuss/msgReader$226

Posted by: mstemen at August 12, 2006 07:54 AM

Interesting thing to note. I think before that, computers were the size of refrigerators that costed many thousands of dollars ;)

Also interesting to note, notice the missing mouse. This was not the computer we are familiar with today, it used a "command line interface" (PC DOS) meaning all functions were typed in. There was no mouse or visual icons on the 'desktop', just a black screen. It was Apple Macintosh - in 1984 -that came out with the fist computer that had a mouse and graphical user interface (GUI) that we are more familiar with today. Followed by the Amiga, then Windows in 1985 and 86 respectively.

And, the use of computers for publishing information to be printed (newspapers, magazines, advertisements, brochures, etc) began on the Macintosh. (from Wikipedia...)

"In 1985, the combination of the Mac, Apple’s LaserWriter printer, and Mac-specific software like... Aldus PageMaker (now Adobe PageMaker) enabled users to design, preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics, an activity known as "desktop publishing". Desktop publishing was unique to the Macintosh, but eventually became available for PC users as well. Later, programs such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress, and Adobe Illustrator strengthened the Mac’s position as a graphics computer and helped to expand the emerging desktop publishing market."

In case you ever wondered, this is why artists and graphic designers tend to use Macs.

In any event, it is amazing how much computers have become part of our lives. I don't think I could live without mine. Even more amazing was the advent of the internet. The amount of information at your fingertips is incredible. I didn't have this luxury in school, I used to have to use a library and card catalogue! I could not imagine having to go the library every time I wanted to look something up! Can you? I teach at the high school level, and these kids don't know how easy they have it! However, not the greatest thing for the 'instant gratification'- short attention span generation ;)

Posted by: Mr. G at August 12, 2006 07:57 AM

One correction for the sake of clarity, and so people will know how far things have really come. In the piece it states the original PC had 16 megabytes of memory. At that time 16 megabytes was more than anyone ever thought could ever be necessary. The original PC had 16 Kilobytes of memory. That's one one thousandth of 16 megabytes. It eventually got up to 640 kilobytes, to which Bill Gates is reputed to have said, "I can't image anyone ever needing more than that."

Posted by: nfzgrld at August 12, 2006 09:01 AM

Ha ha, a couple of astute readers noted the kilobyte/megabyte error, which has now been fixed. Yeah, it's been so long that the "k"-word had simply vanished from my vocabulary! Thanks for setting me straight.

Posted by: Maynard at August 12, 2006 12:49 PM

Famous Bill Gates quote: "We will never need more than 640 KB of RAM".

Posted by: LongTabSigO at August 12, 2006 01:51 PM

What's interesting about the Internet itself is that it came to be because the military wanted a network that could withstand a direct nuclear strike on a major city. Thus a network with no central hubs whatsoever.

It's this lack of hubs, and the way that you can just keep adding and adding to it ad hoc that made it the globe-spanning network that it is today.

And down the road when we've got occupied moonbases and ET colonies*, they'll be able to just plug in. :)

(* that's "extra-terrestrial colonies", not "colonies of Spielbergian aliens")

Posted by: Strider72 at August 18, 2006 02:32 PM

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