query: What year was the IBM PC invented?

title: IBM PC compatible

text: differences that IBM compatible software could not be used; examples include slight differences in the memory map, serial ports or video hardware. Only the Macintosh kept significant market share without compatibility with the IBM PC. IBM decided in 1980 to market a low-cost single-user computer as quickly as possible in response to Apple Computer's success in the burgeoning microcomputer market. On 12 August 1981, the first IBM PC went on sale. There were three operating systems (OS) available for it. The least expensive and most popular was PC DOS made by Microsoft. In a crucial concession, IBM's agreement allowed Microsoft

title: IBM PC DOS

text: was helping IBM to write. IBM had more people writing requirements for the computer than Microsoft had writing code. O'Rear often felt overwhelmed by the number of people he had to deal with at the ESD (Entry Systems Division) facility in Boca Raton, Florida. Perhaps the first public mention of the operating system was in July 1981, when "Byte" discussed rumors of a forthcoming personal computer with "a CP/M-like DOS ... to be called, simply, 'IBM Personal Computer DOS.'" 86-DOS was rebranded IBM PC DOS 1.0 for its August 1981 release with the IBM PC. The initial version of DOS

title: Influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market

text: systems came on the market in the year before IBM released the IBM PC. Very few of them used a 16- or 32-bit microprocessor, as 8-bit systems were generally believed by the vendors to be perfectly adequate, and the Intel 8086 was too expensive to use. Some of the main manufacturers selling 8-bit business systems during this period were: On August 12, 1981, IBM released the IBM Personal Computer. One of the most far-reaching decisions made for IBM PC was to use an open architecture, leading to a large market for third party add-in boards and applications; but finally also

title: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes

text: of a new IBM personal computer, perhaps a miniaturized version of the IBM System/370. In 1981 the IBM Personal Computer appeared, but it was not based on the System 370 architecture. However, IBM did use their new PC platform to create some exotic combinations with additional hardware that could execute S/370 instructions locally. In October 1983, IBM announced the IBM Personal Computer XT/370. This was essentially a three-in-one product. It could run PC DOS locally, it could also act as 3270 terminal, and finally—its most important distinguishing feature relative to an IBM 3270 PC—was that it could execute S/370 instructions

text: the x86-based systems, promoting growth of the x86/MS-DOS "ecosystem". As the non-x86 architectures died off, and x86 systems standardized into fully IBM PC compatible clones, a market filled with dozens of different competing systems was reduced to a near-monoculture of x86-based, IBM PC compatible, MS-DOS systems. Early after the launch of the IBM PC in 1981, there were still dozens of systems that were not IBM PC-compatible, but did use Intel x86 chips. They used Intel 8088, 8086, or 80186 processors, and almost without exception offered an OEM version of MS-DOS (as opposed to the OEM version customized for IBM's

title: IBM PC keyboard

text: (Control, Meta, Super, Hyper) are in a row, allowing easy chording to press several, unlike on the Model M layout. This results in the "Emacs pinky" problem. Although "PC Magazine" praised most aspects of the 1981 IBM PC keyboard's hardware design, it questioned "how IBM, that ultimate pro of keyboard manufacture, could put the left-hand SHIFT key at the awkward reach they did". The magazine reported in 1982 that it received more letters to its "Wish List" column asking for the ability to determine the status of the three lock keys than on any other topic. "BYTE" columnist Jerry Pournelle

title: IBM PC DOS

text: CP/M-86, which became available six months after PC DOS, and UCSD p-System operating systems. IBM's expectation proved correct: one survey found that 96.3% of PCs were ordered with the $40 PC-DOS compared to 3.4% with the $240 CP/M-86. Microsoft first licensed, then purchased 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products (SCP), which was modified for the IBM PC by Microsoft employee Bob O'Rear with assistance from SCP (later Microsoft) employee Tim Paterson. O'Rear got 86-DOS to run on the prototype PC in February 1981. 86-DOS had to be converted from 8-inch to 5.25-inch floppy disks and integrated with the BIOS, which Microsoft

title: IBM 5120

text: detailing shows great care in execution″; and ″looks like quality″. IBM did not offer a LAN or hard disk drive for these systems. However, in 1981 Hal Prewitt, founder of Core International, Inc invented and marketed the world's first and only hard disk subsystems and "CoreNet", a LAN used to share programs and data for the IBM 5110 and 5120 systems. In 1984, Core introduced PC51, software that allowed 5100 Series computer programs written in BASIC to run unmodified on the IBM PC and compatibles under PC DOS and share programs and data on CoreNet, the LAN for all these

title: IBM PC DOS

text: was largely based on CP/M-80 1.x and most of its architecture, function calls and file-naming conventions were copied directly from the older OS. The most significant difference was the fact that it introduced a different file system, FAT12. Unlike all later DOS versions, the DATE and TIME commands were separate executables rather than part of COMMAND.COM. Single-sided 160 kilobyte (kB) 5.25" floppies were the only disk format supported. In late 1981 Paterson, now at Microsoft, began writing PC DOS 1.10. It debuted in May 1982 along with the Revision B IBM PC. Support for the new double-sided drives was added,

title: IBM PC compatible

text: IBM PC's release. "InfoWorld" wrote on the first anniversary of the IBM PC that By June 1983 "PC Magazine" defined "PC 'clone'" as "a computer [that can] accommodate the user who takes a disk home from an IBM PC, walks across the room, and plugs it into the 'foreign' machine". Because of a shortage of IBM PCs that year, many customers purchased clones instead. Columbia Data Products produced the first computer more or less compatible with the IBM PC standard during June 1982, soon followed by Eagle Computer. Compaq announced its first IBM PC compatible in November 1982, the Compaq

title: IBM 3270 PC

text: IBM 3270 PC The IBM 3270 PC (IBM System Unit 5271), released in October 1983, was an IBM PC XT containing additional hardware which could emulate the behaviour of an IBM 3270 terminal. It could therefore be used both as a standalone computer, and as a terminal to a mainframe. IBM later released the "3270 AT" (IBM System Unit 5273), which was a similar design based on the IBM PC AT. They also released high-end graphics versions of the 3270 PC in both XT and AT variants. The XT-based versions were called 3270 PC/G and 3270 PC/GX and they used

title: IBM PC DOS

text: IBM PC DOS IBM PC DOS (an acronym for "IBM personal computer disk operating system") is a discontinued operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, manufactured and sold by IBM from the early 1980s into the 2000s. Before version 6.1, PC DOS was an IBM-branded version of MS-DOS. From version 6.1 on, PC DOS became IBM's independent product. The IBM task force assembled to develop the PC decided that critical components of the machine, including the operating system, would come from outside vendors. This radical break from company tradition of in-house development was one of the key decisions that made

title: IBM PC DOS

text: needed. In 1986, IBM announced PC DOS support for client access to the file services defined by Distributed Data Management Architecture (DDM). This enabled programs on PCs to create, manage, and access record-oriented files available on IBM System/36, IBM System/38 and IBM mainframe computers running CICS. In 1988, client support for stream-oriented files and hierarchical directories was added to PC DOS when they became available on the DDM server systems. IBM PC DOS IBM PC DOS (an acronym for "IBM personal computer disk operating system") is a discontinued operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, manufactured and sold by IBM

title: IBM PC Series

text: IBM PC Series The IBM PC Series personal computer was the follow-on to the IBM PS/ValuePoint and IBM Personal System/2. Announced in October 1994 and withdrawn in October 2000, it was replaced by the IBM NetVista, apart from the Pentium Pro-based PC360 and PC365, which were replaced by the IBM IntelliStation. The PC 100 was a budget model, available only in selected markets. The PC 140 was a budget model, available only in selected markets. Industry standard ISA/PCI architecture, first IBM machines with USB. Processors ranged from the 486DX2-50, 486SX-20, 486DX4-100 to the Pentium 200 and in case of the

title: IBM PC Series

text: at 233, 266 or 300 MHz. It features integrated 10/100 Ethernet. IBM PC Series The IBM PC Series personal computer was the follow-on to the IBM PS/ValuePoint and IBM Personal System/2. Announced in October 1994 and withdrawn in October 2000, it was replaced by the IBM NetVista, apart from the Pentium Pro-based PC360 and PC365, which were replaced by the IBM IntelliStation. The PC 100 was a budget model, available only in selected markets. The PC 140 was a budget model, available only in selected markets. Industry standard ISA/PCI architecture, first IBM machines with USB. Processors ranged from the 486DX2-50,

title: IBM PC compatible

text: IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are computers similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones. They duplicate almost exactly all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by IBM's choice of commodity hardware components and various manufacturers' ability to reverse engineer the BIOS firmware using a "clean room design" technique. Columbia Data Products built the first clone of the IBM personal computer by a clean room implementation of its BIOS. Early IBM PC compatibles

title: IBM PC keyboard

text: IBM PC keyboard The keyboard for IBM PC-compatible computers is standardized. However, during the more than 30 years of PC architecture being frequently updated, many keyboard layout variations have been developed. A well-known class of IBM PC keyboards is the Model M. Introduced in 1986 and manufactured by IBM, Lexmark, Maxi-Switch and Unicomp, the vast majority of Model M keyboards feature a buckling spring key design and many have fully swappable keycaps. The PC keyboard changed over the years, often at the launch of new IBM PC versions. Common additions to the standard layouts include additional power management keys, volume

title: IBM RT PC

text: IBM RT PC The IBM RT PC (RISC Technology Personal Computer) is a family of workstation computers from IBM introduced in 1986. These were the first commercial computers from IBM that were based on a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture. The RT PC used IBM's proprietary ROMP microprocessor, which commercialized technologies pioneered by IBM Research's 801 experimental minicomputer (the 801 was the first RISC). The RT PC ran three operating systems: AIX, the Academic Operating System (AOS), or Pick. The RT PC's performance was relatively poor compared to other contemporary workstations and it had little commercial success as a

title: IBM 3270 PC

text: an XT with an added 3278 board. IBM considered the 3270 PC Control Program to be mainframe software, so it did not provide user-installable upgrades. Upgrades had to be installed by expert system programmers. The PC/G and PC/GX models ran a mainframe-graphics-capable version of the Control Program called the Graphics Control Program (GCP). On the mainframe side, the IBM Graphical Data Display Manager (GDDM) release 4 (and later) was compatible with these two workstations. The GDDM provided support for local pan and zoom (without taxing the host mainframe) on the PC/G and PC/GX. In 1987 IBM released the IBM 3270

title: IBM PC compatible

text: used the same computer bus as the original PC and AT models. The IBM AT compatible bus was later named the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus by manufacturers of compatible computers. The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, since IBM has ended its personal computer sales. Descendants of the IBM PC compatibles comprise the majority of personal computers on the market presently with the dominant operating system being Microsoft Windows, although interoperability with the bus structure and peripherals of the original PC architecture may be limited or non-existent. Some computers ran MS-DOS but had enough hardware

text: Admitting that "it's what our dealers asked for", Kaypro also introduced the company's first IBM compatible that year. Tandy also began selling non-proprietary computers; four years after its Jon Shirley predicted to "InfoWorld" that the new IBM PC's "major market would be IBM addicts", the magazine in 1985 similarly called the IBM compatibility of the Tandy 1000 "no small concession to Big Blue's dominating stranglehold" by a company that had been "struggling openly in the blood-soaked arena of personal computers". The 1000 was compatible with the PC but not compatible with its own Tandy 2000 MS-DOS computer. IBM's mainframe rivals,

title: IBM PC Convertible

text: IBM PC Convertible The IBM PC Convertible is the first laptop computer released by IBM. Released on April 3, 1986, the Convertible was also the first IBM computer to use the 3½-inch floppy disk format which went on to become the industry standard. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries. It was the follow-up to the IBM Portable and was model number 5140. It was replaced in 1991 by the IBM PS/2 L40 SX, and in Japan by the IBM Personal System/55note, which was the predecessor to the ThinkPad. IBM engineers in 1983

text: non-IBM-compatible specific version of MS-DOS or CP/M-86, just as 8-bit systems with an Intel 8080 compatible CPU normally used CP/M. Within a year of the IBM PC's introduction, Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to over 70 other companies. One of the first computers to achieve 100% PC compatibility was the Compaq portable, released in November 1982; it remained the most compatible clone into 1984. When the PC did not yet dominate the market, however, most x86-based systems were not clones of the IBM PC design, but had different internal designs, like the CP/M-based 8-bit systems that preceded them. The IBM PC was

title: IBM PC compatible

text: to sell its own version, MS-DOS, for non-IBM computers. The only component of the original PC architecture exclusive to IBM was the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). IBM at first asked developers to avoid writing software that addressed the computer's hardware directly, and to instead make standard calls to BIOS functions that carried out hardware-dependent operations. This software would run on any machine using MS-DOS or PC-DOS. Software that directly addressed the hardware instead of making standard calls was faster, however; this was particularly relevant to games. Software addressing IBM PC hardware in this way would not run on MS-DOS machines

title: IBM PC DOS

text: was PC DOS 2000 – released from Austin in 1998 – which found its niche in the embedded software market and elsewhere. PC DOS 2000 is a slipstream of 7.0 with Y2K and other fixes applied. To applications, PC DOS 2000 reports itself as "IBM PC DOS 7.00, revision 1", in contrast to the original PC DOS 7, which reported itself as "IBM PC DOS 7.00, revision 0". Hitachi used PC DOS 2000 in their legacy "Drive Fitness Test" (4.15) and "Hitachi Feature Tool" (2.15) until 2009. ThinkPad products had a copy of the latest version of PC DOS in

title: IBM PC DOS

text: bugs and added support for half-height floppy drives and the new IBM PCjr. In 1983, Compaq released the Compaq Portable, the first 100% IBM PC compatible and licensed their own OEM version of DOS 1.10 (quickly replaced by DOS 2.00) from Microsoft. Other PC compatibles followed suit, most of which included hardware-specific DOS features, although some were generic. In August 1984, IBM introduced the Intel 80286-derived IBM PC/AT, its next-generation machine. Along with this was DOS 3.00. Despite jumping a whole version number, it again proved little more than an incremental upgrade, adding nothing more substantial than support for the

title: IBM PC Convertible

text: laptops from companies such as Toshiba and Zenith that were lighter and offered similar specifications, sometimes at half the price. The keyboard was also widely criticized. IBM PC Convertible The IBM PC Convertible is the first laptop computer released by IBM. Released on April 3, 1986, the Convertible was also the first IBM computer to use the 3½-inch floppy disk format which went on to become the industry standard. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries. It was the follow-up to the IBM Portable and was model number 5140. It was replaced in

title: IBM PC DOS

text: rebranded version of MS DOS until 1993. IBM and Microsoft parted ways—MS-DOS 6 was released in March, and PC DOS 6.1 (separately developed) followed in June. Most of the new features from MS-DOS 6.0 appeared in PC DOS 6.1 including the new boot menu support and the new commands CHOICE, DELTREE and MOVE. QBasic was dropped and the MS-DOS Editor was replaced with the IBM E Editor. PC DOS 6.1 reports itself as DOS 6.00. PC DOS 6.3 followed in December. PC DOS 6.3 was also used in OS/2 for the PowerPC. PC DOS 6.3 also featured SuperStor disk compression

text: difficult to obtain for several years after its introduction. Many makers of MS-DOS computers intentionally avoided full IBM compatibility because they expected that the market for what "InfoWorld" described as "ordinary PC clones" would decline once the shortage of real PCs ended. They feared the fate of companies that sold computers plug-compatible with IBM mainframes in the 1960s and 1970s—many of which went bankrupt after IBM changed specifications—and believed that a market existed for personal computers with a similar selection of software to the IBM PC, but with better hardware. Even a few years after the IBM PC's introduction, manufacturers

title: IBM PC keyboard

text: keyboard has accumulated several special keys over the years. Some of the additions have been inspired by the opportunity or requirement for improving user productivity with general office application software, while other slightly more general keyboard additions have become the factory standards after being introduced by certain operating system or GUI software vendors such as Microsoft. IBM PC keyboard The keyboard for IBM PC-compatible computers is standardized. However, during the more than 30 years of PC architecture being frequently updated, many keyboard layout variations have been developed. A well-known class of IBM PC keyboards is the Model M. Introduced in

title: IBM PC compatible

text: production and the 32-bit Atari ST used by the music industry. However, IBM itself lost the main role in the market for IBM PC compatibles by 1990. A few events in retrospect are important: Despite popularity of its ThinkPad set of laptop PC's, IBM finally relinquished its role as a consumer PC manufacturer during April 2005, when it sold its laptop and desktop PC divisions to Lenovo for US$1.75 billion. As of October 2007, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have the largest shares of the PC market in North America. They are also successful overseas, with Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba also notable.

text: Influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market Following the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer, or IBM PC, many other personal computer architectures became extinct within just a few years. Before the IBM PC was introduced, the personal computer market was dominated by systems using the 6502 and Z80 8-bit microprocessors, such as the TRS 80, Commodore PET and Apple II series, which used proprietary operating systems, and by computers running CP/M. After IBM introduced the IBM PC, it was not until 1984 that IBM PC and clones became the dominant computers. In 1983, Byte forecast that

title: IBM RT PC

text: RT as "not enough power, too high a price, and too late." Many thought that the RT was part of IBM's Personal Computer line of computers. This confusion started with its initial name, "IBM RT PC". Initially, it seemed that even IBM thought that it was a high-end Personal Computer given the initially stunning lack of support that it received from IBM. This could be explained by the sales commission structure the IBM gave the system: salesmen received commissions similar to those for the sale of a PC. With typically configured models priced at $20,000, it was a hard sell,

title: IBM PC DOS

text: then come back and say we stole it and made all this money. We had lost a series of suits on this, and so we didn't want to have a product which was clearly someone else's product worked on by IBM people. We went to Microsoft on the proposition that we wanted this to be their product. IBM first contacted Microsoft to look the company over in July 1980. Negotiations continued over the months that followed, and the paperwork was officially signed in early November. Although IBM expected that most customers would use PC DOS, the IBM PC also supported

text: noncompatibles". The PC standard was similarly dominant in Europe, with Honeywell Bull, Olivetti, and Ericsson selling compatibles and software companies focusing on PC products. By the end of the year "PC Magazine" stated that even IBM could no longer introduce a rumored proprietary, non-compatible operating system. Noting that the company's unsuccessful PCjr's "cardinal sin was that it wasn't PC compatible", the magazine wrote that "backward compatibility [with the IBM PC] is the single largest concern of hardware and software developers. The user community is too large and demanding to accept radical changes or abandon solutions that have worked in the

title: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes

text: converters. Although a single-card product, the P/370 ran three times faster than the 7437, attaining 3.5 MIPS, on par with a low-end IBM 4381. A subsequent book (by the same author) claims 4.1 MIPS for the P/370. The Personal/370 was available as early as November 1989 although on a "special bid basis". In 1995 IBM introduced a card, the "Enhanced S/390 MicroProcessor Complex", which supported IBM ESA/390 architecture on a PC-based system. IBM's PC-related products evolved to support that as well, employing the card (IBM part number 8640-PB0) in the "IBM PC Server 330 in 1998 and the IBM PC

text: like 1-2-3, and developers only cared about the massive PC installed base, so any non-compatible—no matter its technical superiority—from a company other than Apple failed for lack of customers and software. Compatibility became so important that Dave Winer joked that year (referring to the PC AT's incomplete compatibility with the IBM PC), "The only company that can introduce a machine that isn't PC compatible and survive is IBM". By 1985, the shortage of IBM PCs had ended, causing financial difficulties for many vendors of compatibles; nonetheless, Harris said, "The only ones that have done worse than the compatibles are the

title: IBM PC compatible

text: market grew IBM's influence diminished. In November 1985 "PC Magazine" stated "Now that it has created the [PC] market, the market doesn't necessarily need IBM for the machines. It may depend on IBM to set standards and to develop higher-performance machines, but IBM had better conform to existing standards so as to not hurt users". In January 1987, Bruce Webster wrote in "Byte" of rumors that IBM would introduce proprietary personal computers with a proprietary operating system: "Who cares? If IBM does it, they will most likely just isolate themselves from the largest marketplace, in which they really can't compete

title: IBM PC keyboard

text: the IBM PC, but on the IBM PC the Escape key is in the corner; this is typically solved by remapping Caps Lock to Escape. Another example is the Emacs editor, which makes extensive use of modifier keys, and uses the Control key more than the Meta key (IBM PC instead has the Alt key) – these date to the Knight keyboard, which had the Control key on the "inside" of the Meta key, opposite to the Model M, where it is on the "outside" of the Alt key; and to the space-cadet keyboard, where the four bucky bit keys

text: forced out of the market by the onslaught of the IBM PC clones, although their architectures may have had superior capabilities, especially in the area of multimedia. The PC architectures of that era often only had a CGA display, and no other sound system than the internal PC speaker. Three systems of this era, while now extinct, have thriving legacies: Influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market Following the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer, or IBM PC, many other personal computer architectures became extinct within just a few years. Before the IBM PC was introduced, the

title: IBM PC compatible

text: generation' true 16-bit CPU", and with "More speed. More disk storage. More expansion" than the IBM PC or "other MS-DOS computers". While admitting in 1984 that many MS-DOS programs did not support the computer, the company stated that "the most popular, sophisticated software on the market" was available, either immediately or "over the next six months". Like IBM, Microsoft's intention was that application writers would write to the application programming interfaces in MS-DOS or the firmware BIOS, and that this would form what would now be termed a hardware abstraction layer. Each computer would have its own Original Equipment Manufacturer

title: IBM PC compatible

text: the Extensible Firmware Interface might need to be set at legacy BIOS mode to be able to boot DOS. However, the BIOS/EFI options in most mass-produced consumer-grade computers are very limited and cannot be configured to truly handle OSes such as the original variants of DOS. The recent spread of the x86-64 architecture has further distanced current computers' and operating systems' internal similarity with the original IBM PC by introducing yet another processor mode with an instruction set modified for 64-bit addressing, but x86-64 capable processors also retain standard x86 compatibility. IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are computers

title: IBM PC compatible

text: on PC architecture started to decline. An IBM-brand PC became the exception rather than the rule. Instead of placing importance on compatibility with the IBM PC, vendors began to emphasize compatibility with Windows. In 1993, a version of Windows NT was released that could operate on processors other than the x86 set. While it required that applications be recompiled, which most developers did not do, its hardware independence was used for Silicon Graphics (SGI) x86 workstations–thanks to NT's Hardware abstraction layer (HAL), they could operate NT (and its vast application library). No mass-market personal computer hardware vendor dared to be

title: IBM 3270 PC

text: Workstation Program, which supported both XT and AT models of the 3270 PCs, as well as the plain XT and AT models (even with an XT or AT keyboard) with a 3278 board. It allowed up to six concurrent DOS 3.3 sessions, but the number of mainframe sessions and notepads remained the same (four and two, respectively). "BYTE" in 1984 praised the 3270 PC's 3278 emulation and color monitor, and concluded that the computer was "a must" for those seeking high-quality graphics or mainframe communications. IBM 3270 PC The IBM 3270 PC (IBM System Unit 5271), released in October 1983,

title: IBM PC DOS

text: AT's new 1.2 megabyte (MB) floppy disks. Planned networking capabilities in DOS 3.00 were judged too buggy to be usable and Microsoft disabled them prior to the OS's release. In any case, IBM's original plans for the AT had been to equip it with a proper next-generation OS that would use its extended features, but this never materialized. PC DOS 3.1 (released March 1985) fixed the bugs in DOS 3.00 and supported IBM's Network Adapter card on the IBM PC Network. PC DOS 3.2 added support for 3½-inch double-density 720 kB floppy disk drives, supporting the IBM PC Convertible, IBM's

text: trivially different from the IBM PC. This was especially common among games. As a result, the systems that were not fully IBM PC-compatible couldn't run this software, and quickly became obsolete. Rendered obsolete with them was the CP/M-inherited concept of OEM versions of MS-DOS meant to run (through BIOS calls) on non IBM-PC hardware. In 1984, Phoenix Technologies began licensing its clone of the IBM PC BIOS. The Phoenix BIOS and competitors such as AMI BIOS made it possible for anyone to market a PC compatible computer, without having to develop a compatible BIOS like Compaq. Although based on the

title: IBM PC compatible

text: Worldwide, a huge number of PCs are "white box" systems assembled by myriad local systems builders. Despite advances of computer technology, all current IBM PC compatibles remain very much compatible with the original IBM PC computers, although most of the components implement the compatibility in special backward compatibility modes used only during a system boot. It is often more practical to run old software on a modern system using an emulator rather than relying on these features. In 2014 Lenovo acquired IBM's x86-based server business for US$2.1 billion. One of the strengths of the PC compatible design is its modular

title: IBM RT PC

text: OS also found use as shopping store control systems, given the strong database, accounting system and general business support in the Pick OS. The RT also did well as an interface system between IBM's larger mainframes, due to its SNA and DS support, and some of its point-of-sale terminals, store control systems, and machine shop control systems. Approximately 23,000 RTs were sold over its lifetime, with some 4,000 going into IBM's development and sales organizations. Pick OS sales accounted for about 4,000 units. "This entry incorporates text from the RT/PC FAQ ." IBM RT PC The IBM RT PC (RISC

title: IBM PC compatible

text: clones for every IBM PC. By 1989 Compaq was so influential that industry executives spoke of "Compaq compatible", with observers stating that customers saw the company as IBM's equal. After 1987, IBM PC compatibles dominated both the home and business markets of commodity computers, with other notable alternative architectures being used in niche markets, like the Macintosh computers offered by Apple Inc. and used mainly for desktop publishing at the time, the aging 8-bit Commodore 64 which was selling for $150 by this time and became the world's best-selling computer, the 32-bit Commodore Amiga line used for television and video

title: IBM PC Network

text: IBM PC Network The IBM PC Network was IBM's first LAN system. It consisted of network cards, cables, and a small device driver known as NetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System). It used a data rate of 2 Mbit/s. The original broadband version in 1984 communicated over 75 Ω RG-11-type cable using frequency-division multiplexing, so traffic travelled on separate transmit and receive frequency ranges, using a Sytek head-end device to translate between the two signals, and it was intended that the cable be shared, with video and voice traffic using other bands. It ran at 2 Mbit/s. NetBIOS was developed by

title: IBM RT PC

text: distinction of being built on top of SNA, and thereby being fully compatible with DS on the IBM midrange AS/400 and mainframe systems. For the graphical user interfaces, AIX v2 came with the X10R3 and later the X10R4 and X11 releases of the X Window System from MIT, together with the Athena widget set. Compilers for C and Fortran programming languages were available. Some RT PCs were also shipped with the Academic Operating System (AOS), an IBM port of 4.3BSD Unix to the RT PC. It was offered to academic institutions as an alternative to AIX, the usual RT PC

title: IBM PC compatible

text: Portable. The Compaq was the first sewing machine-sized portable computer that was essentially 100% PC-compatible. The company could not copy the BIOS directly as a result of the court decision in "Apple v. Franklin", but it could reverse-engineer the IBM BIOS and then write its own BIOS using clean room design. At the same time, many manufacturers such as Tandy/RadioShack, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corporation, Sanyo, Texas Instruments, Tulip, Wang and Olivetti introduced personal computers that supported MS-DOS, but were not completely software- or hardware-compatible with the IBM PC. Tandy described the Tandy 2000, for example, as having a "'next

title: IBM PC Network

text: a terminator on one end of the chain and a wrap plug on the other. A hybrid star topology was possible using a hub. IBM PC Network The IBM PC Network was IBM's first LAN system. It consisted of network cards, cables, and a small device driver known as NetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System). It used a data rate of 2 Mbit/s. The original broadband version in 1984 communicated over 75 Ω RG-11-type cable using frequency-division multiplexing, so traffic travelled on separate transmit and receive frequency ranges, using a Sytek head-end device to translate between the two signals, and it

title: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes

text: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes Since the rise of the personal computer in the 1980s, IBM and other vendors have created PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes which are compatible with the larger IBM mainframe computers. For a period of time PC-based mainframe-compatible systems had a lower price and did not require as much electricity or floor space. However, they sacrificed performance and were not as dependable as mainframe-class hardware. These products have been popular with mainframe developers, in education and training settings, for very small companies with non-critical processing, and in certain disaster relief roles (such as field insurance adjustment systems for hurricane relief).

title: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes

title: IBM PC DOS

text: first computer to use 3½-inch floppy disks, released April 1986. And later the IBM Personal System/2 in 1987. In June 1985, IBM and Microsoft signed a long-term Joint Development Agreement to share specified DOS code and create a new operating system from scratch, known at the time as Advanced DOS. On April 2, 1987 OS/2 was announced as the first product produced under the agreement. At the same time, IBM released its next generation of personal computers, the IBM Personal System/2 (PS/2). PC DOS 3.3, released with the PS/2 line, added support for high density 3½-inch 1.44 megabyte (MB) floppy

title: IBM PC compatible

text: anymore anyway". The magazine predicted that in 1987 the market "will complete its transition from an IBM standard to an Intel/MS-DOS/expansion bus standard ... Folks aren't so much concerned about IBM compatibility as they are about Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility". By 1992 "Macworld" stated that because of clones, "IBM lost control of its own market and became a minor player with its own technology". After IBM announced the OS/2-oriented PS/2 line in early 1987, sales of existing DOS-compatible PC compatibles rose, in part because the proprietary operating system was not available. In 1988 Gartner Group estimated that the public purchased 1.5

text: of the IBM PC". The magazine cited the announcement by North Star in fall 1983 of its first PC-compatible microcomputer. Founded in 1976, North Star had long been successful with 8-bit S-100 bus products, and had introduced proprietary 16-bit products, but now the company acknowledged that the IBM PC had become a "standard", one which North Star needed to follow. "BYTE" described the announcement as representative of the great impact IBM had made on the industry: The magazine expressed concern that "IBM's burgeoning influence in the PC community is stifling innovation because so many other companies are mimicking Big Blue".

text: most IBM PC-compatible software, but still retain unique design elements that support Apple's Mac OS X operating system. In 2008, Sid Meier listed the IBM PC as one of the three most important innovations in the history of video games. Shortly after the IBM PC was released, an obvious split appeared between systems that opted to use an x86-compatible processor, and those that chose another architecture. Almost all of the x86 systems provided a version of MS-DOS. The others used many different operating systems, although the Z80-based systems typically offered a version of CP/M. The common usage of MS-DOS unified

title: IBM PC DOS

text: disk drives, which IBM introduced in its 80286-based and higher PS/2 models. The upgrade from DOS 3.2 to 3.3 was completely written by IBM, with no development effort on the part of Microsoft, who were working on "Advanced DOS 1.0". DOS 3.30 was the last version designed with the IBM XT and floppy-only systems in mind; it became one of the most popular versions and many users preferred it to its buggy successor. PC DOS 4.0 (internally known as DOS 3.4 originally), shipped July 1988. DOS 4.0 had some compatibility issues with low-level disk utilities due to some internal data

title: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes

text: PCI P/390 card can be installed in a number of early PCI RS/6000s; all such configurations are referred to as an R/390. R/390 servers need to run AIX version 4 as the host operating system. P/390 was the designation used for the expansion card used in an IBM PC Server and was less expensive than the R/390. The original P/390 server was housed in an IBM PC Server 500 and featured a 90 MHz Intel Pentium processor for running OS/2. The model was revised in mid-1996 and rebranded as the PC Server 520, which featured a 133 MHz Intel Pentium

title: IBM PC compatible

text: with different hardware. The IBM PC was sold in high enough volumes to justify writing software specifically for it, and this encouraged other manufacturers to produce machines which could use the same programs, expansion cards, and peripherals as the PC. The 808x computer marketplace rapidly excluded all machines which were not hardware- and software-compatible with the PC. The 640 KB barrier on "conventional" system memory available to MS-DOS is a legacy of that period; other non-clone machines, while subject to a limit, could exceed 640 kB. Rumors of "lookalike", compatible computers, created without IBM's approval, began almost immediately after the

text: the BUNCH, introduced their own compatibles, and when Hewlett-Packard introduced the Vectra "InfoWorld" stated that the company was "responding to demands from its customers for full IBM PC compatibility". Mitch Kapor of Lotus Development Corporation said in 1984 that "either you have to be PC-compatible or very special". "Compatibility has proven to be the only safe path", Microsoft executive Jim Harris stated in 1985, while "InfoWorld" wrote that IBM's competitors were "whipped into conformity" with its designs, because of "the total failure of every company that tried to improve on the IBM PC". Customers only wanted to run PC applications

title: IBM PC compatible

text: the x86 architecture. Although the IBM PC was designed for expandability, the designers could not anticipate the hardware developments of the 1980s, nor the size of the industry they would engender. To make things worse, IBM's choice of the Intel 8088 for the CPU introduced several limitations for developing software for the PC compatible platform. For example, the 8088 processor only had a 20-bit memory addressing space. To expand "PC"s beyond one megabyte, Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft jointly created expanded memory (EMS), a bank-switching scheme to allow more memory provided by add-in hardware, and accessed by a set of four

text: use). However, they generally made no attempt to copy the IBM PC's architecture, so these machines had different I/O addresses, a different system bus, different video controllers, and other differences from the original IBM PC. These differences, which were sometimes rather minor, were used to improve upon the IBM PC's design, but as a result of the differences, software that directly manipulated the hardware would not run correctly. In most cases, the x86-based systems that didn't use a fully IBM PC compatible design didn't sell well enough to attract support from software manufacturers, though a few computer manufacturers arranged for

title: IBM PC Series

text: an IBM SurePath BIOS. This PC has 2 USB 1.0 slots in the back. The latest operating system which can be installed in this PC is Windows 2000 or Windows ME. Windows XP can also be installed, but performance drops to unusable levels. It comes with a 5 volt SDRAM slot which is incompatible with the 3.3V (the more commonly used SDRAM). The slot looks the same at first glance, but the keying is different. Trying to force a 3.3V SDRAM module into the 5V SDRAM slot could damage the slot and memory chips. <br>Submodels were: The PC 340, introduced

title: IBM PC compatible

text: Phoenix BIOS in 1984, however, and similar products such as AMI BIOS, permitted computer makers to legally build essentially 100%-compatible clones without having to reverse-engineer the PC BIOS themselves. A September 1985 "InfoWorld" chart listed seven compatibles with 256 KB RAM, two disk drives, and monochrome monitors for $1,495 to $2,320, while the equivalent IBM PC cost $2,820. By 1986 "Compute!" stated that "clones are generally reliable and about 99 percent compatible". In February 1984, "Byte" wrote that "IBM's burgeoning influence in the PC community is stifling innovation because so many other companies are mimicking Big Blue", but as the

title: IBM PC compatible

text: Intel's chips", forcing them to make their new computer bug compatible with the IBM PC. At first, few clones other than Compaq's offered truly full compatibility; Columbia University reported in January 1984, for example, that Kermit ran without modification on Compaq and Columbia Data Products clones, but not on those from Eagle or Seequa. Other MS-DOS computers also required custom code. Many companies were reluctant to have their products' PC compatibility tested. When "PC Magazine" requested samples from computer manufacturers that claimed to produce compatibles for an April 1984 review, 14 of 31 declined. Corona Data Systems specified that "Our

text: past." Within a few years of the introduction of fully compatible PC clones, almost all rival business personal computer systems, and alternate x86 using architectures, were gone from the market. Despite the inherent dangers of an industry based on a de facto "standard", a thriving PC clone industry emerged. The only other non-IBM PC-compatible systems that remained were those systems that were classified as home computers, such as the Apple II series, or business systems that offered features not available on the IBM PC, such as a high level of integration (e.g., bundled accounting and inventory) or fault-tolerance and multitasking

text: and multi-user features. Compaq's prices were comparable to IBM's, and the company emphasized its PC compatibles' features and quality to corporate customers. From mid-1985, what "Compute!" described as a "wave" of inexpensive clones from American and Asian companies caused prices to decline; by the end of 1986, the equivalent to a $1600 real IBM PC with 256K RAM and two disk drives cost as little as $600, lower than the price of the Apple IIc. Consumers began purchasing DOS computers for the home in large numbers; Tandy estimated that half of its 1000 sales went to homes, the new Leading

title: IBM PC DOS

text: Memory Area (HMA) and Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs) on 80286 and later systems to reduce its conventional memory usage. Also all DOS commands now supported the /? option to display command syntax. Aside from IBM's PC DOS, MS-DOS was the only other version available as OEM editions vanished since by this time PCs were 100% compatible so customizations for hardware differences were no longer necessary. This was the last version of DOS that IBM and Microsoft shared the full code for, and the DOS that was integrated into OS/2 2.0's, and later Windows NT's, virtual DOS machine. PC-DOS remained a

title: IBM PC DOS

text: the IBM PC an industry standard. At that time the private company Microsoft, founded five years earlier by Bill Gates, was eventually selected for the operating system. IBM wanted Microsoft to retain ownership of whatever software it developed, and wanted nothing to do with helping Microsoft, other than making suggestions from afar. According to task force member Jack Sams: The reasons were internal. We had a terrible problem being sued by people claiming we had stolen their stuff. It could be horribly expensive for us to have our programmers look at code that belonged to someone else because they would

title: IBM RT PC

text: directions. AIX for the RT was IBM's second foray into UNIX (its first was PC/IX for the IBM PC in September 1984.) The lack of software packages and IBM's sometimes lackluster support of AIX, in addition to sometimes unusual changes from traditional, de facto UNIX operating system standards, caused most software suppliers to be slow in embracing the RT and AIX. The RT found its home mostly in the CAD/CAM and CATIA markets, with some inroads into the scientific and educational areas, especially after the announcement of AOS and substantial discounts for the educational community. The RT running the Pick

title: IBM PC compatible

text: on the most minimally MPC-compliant PC would be guaranteed to operate on any MPC. The MPC level 2 and MPC level 3 standards were set later, but the term "MPC compliant" never became popular. After MPC level 3 during 1996, no further MPC standards were established. By the late 1990s, the success of Microsoft Windows had driven rival commercial operating systems into near-extinction, and had ensured that the “IBM PC compatible” computer was the dominant computing platform. This meant that if a developer made their software only for the Wintel platform, they would still be able to reach the vast

title: IBM PC Series

text: in 1996, was a budget model. It used the Pentium processor clocked at 100, 133 or 166 MHz. It had 4 ISA and 3 PCI expansion slots and four (2 external 5.25 inch, 1 external and 1 internal 3.5 inch) drive bays. It also had 4 SIMM-72 RAM slots, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS. The submodels were: The PC 350, introduced over 1994 to 1995, was a middle-class model, having the same motherboard as the PC 330 in a much roomier case with additional drive bays. Processors ranged from the 486DX2-50, 486SX-20, 486DX4-100 to the Pentium 200. It had,

text: its clones), most of the remaining home computers were driven from the market. By 1995, other than the Macintosh, almost no new consumer-oriented systems were sold that were not IBM PC clones. The Macintosh originally used Motorola's 68000 family of processors, later migrating to the PowerPC architecture. Throughout the 1990s Apple would steadily transition the Macintosh platform from proprietary expansion interfaces to use standards from the PC world such as IDE, PCI and USB. In 2006, Apple converted the Macintosh to the Intel x86 architecture. Modern Macintosh computers are essentially IBM PC compatibles, capable of booting Microsoft Windows and running

title: IBM Personal Computer

text: helpful about giving us all the technical information we needed. The feeling was so radically different—it's like stepping out into a warm breeze." He concluded, "After years of hassling—fighting the Not-Invented-Here attitude—we're the gods." Most other personal-computer companies did not disclose technical details; TI, for example, intentionally made developing third-party TI 99/4A software difficult, even requiring a lockout chip in cartridges. IBM itself kept its mainframe technology so secret that rivals were indicted for industrial espionage. For the PC, however, IBM immediately released detailed information. The US$36 "IBM PC Technical Reference Manual" included complete circuit schematics, commented ROM BIOS source

title: IBM PC compatible

text: "we reiterate our standard line regarding the IBM PC compatibles: try the package you want to use before you buy the computer." Companies modified their computers' BIOS to work with newly discovered incompatible applications, and reviewers and users developed stress tests to measure compatibility; by 1984 the ability to operate Lotus 1-2-3 and "Flight Simulator" became the standard, with compatibles specifically designed to run them. IBM believed that some companies such as Eagle, Corona, and Handwell infringed on its copyright, and after "Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp." successfully forced the clone makers to stop using the BIOS. The

title: IBM PC Series

text: memory, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS. The submodels were: The PC 365 is an ISA/PCI-based multiprocessor system with five-expansion slots. It supports dual Pentium Pro processors clocked at 180 or 200 MHz. The case has five drive bays and either two ISA or PCI slots, plus an additional three of which are shared ISA/PCI slots. It had 4 DIMM-168 slots for a total of up to 512 Mb of memory, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS. The submodels were: These systems used the Intel Pentium processor with clock frequencies of 75, 90, 100, 133 and 166 MHz. Initial systems

title: IBM RT PC

text: result; IBM responded by introducing the RISC System/6000 workstations in 1990, which used a new IBM-proprietary RISC processor, the POWER1. All RT PC models were discontinued by May 1991. Two basic types were produced, a floor-standing desk-side tower, and a table-top desktop. Both types featured a special board slot for the processor card, as well as machine specific RAM cards. Each machine had one processor slot, one co-processor slot, and two RAM slots. There were three versions of the processor card: All RT PCs supported up to 16MB of memory. Early models were typically configured with 4MB of memory, later

title: IBM PC Series

text: 500, 533, 550, 600, 667, 733, 800 and 866 MHz. The 300PL usually shipped with a hard drive with a capacity ranging from 2 GB to 20 GB, a CD-ROM drive, and a floppy drive. In some models, an IBM EtherJet 10/100 Ethernet network adapter is also included. The IBM 300PL came either in a tower or a desktop form-factor. Four different types of form-factors exist: The PC 300GL used the Celeron, Pentium I, Pentium II and Pentium III throughout its lifetime. Celeron-based models had processors clocked at 333, 366, 433, 466, 500 and 533 MHz; Pentium I models had

title: IBM PC compatible

text: Netburst architecture for the Pentium 4 CPUs and the IA-64 architecture for the Itanium set of server CPUs. AMD developed AMD64, the first major extension not created by Intel, which Intel later adopted as x86-64. During 2006 Intel began abandoning Netburst with the release of their set of "Core" processors that represented a development of the earlier Pentium III. A major alternative to Wintel domination is the rise of alternative operating systems since the early 2000s, which has been marked as the start of a post-PC era. The term "IBM PC compatible" is not commonly used presently because all current

title: IBM PC DOS

text: their Rescue and Recovery partition. PC DOS 7.1 added support for Logical Block Addressing (LBA) and FAT32 partitions. Various builds from 1999 up to 2003 were not released in retail, but used in products such as the IBM ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit. A build of this version of DOS appeared in Norton Ghost from Symantec. Version 7.1 indicates support for FAT32 also in MS-DOS. Most builds of this version of DOS are limited to the kernel files IBMBIO.COM, IBMDOS.COM and COMMAND.COM. The updated programs FDISK32, FORMAT32 allow one to prepare FAT32 disks. Additional utilities are taken from PC DOS 2000, where

text: i8086 and enabling the creation of relatively low-cost x86-based systems, the Intel 80186 quickly lost appeal for x86-based PC builders because the supporting circuitry inside the Intel 80186 chip was incompatible with those used in the standard PC chipset as implemented by IBM. It was very rarely used in personal computers after 1982. In February 1984 "BYTE" described how "the personal computer market seems to be shadowed under a cloud of compatibility: the drive to be compatible with the IBM Personal Computer family has assumed near-fetish proportions", which it stated was "inevitable in the light of the phenomenal market acceptance

title: IBM TopView

text: forthcoming window environment. IBM determined that the microcomputer market needed a multitasking environment. When it released TopView in 1985, the press speculated that the software was the start of IBM's plan to increase its control over the IBM PC (even though nothing about the IBM PC was proprietary (including the BIOS which was published to the world)) by creating a proprietary operating system for it, similar to what IBM had offered for years on its larger computers. TopView also allowed IBM to serve customers who were surprised that the new IBM AT did not come with an operating system able

text: Edge Model D comprised 1% of the US home-computer market that year, and toy and discount stores sold a clone made by Hyundai like a stereo, without a demonstrator model or salesman. Tandy and other inexpensive clones succeeded with consumers—who saw them as superior to lower-end game machines—where IBM failed two years earlier with the PCjr. They were as inexpensive as home computers of a few years earlier, and comparable in price to the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple IIGS. Unlike the PCjr, clones were as fast as or faster than the IBM PC and highly compatible so users

title: IBM Personal Computer

text: a full-page advertisement in "The Wall Street Journal" with the headline "Welcome, IBM. Seriously". Microsoft head Bill Gates was at Apple headquarters the day of IBM's announcement and later said "They didn't seem to care. It took them a full year to realize what had happened". The IBM PC was immediately successful. The PC was small, light weight, and easy to use. Because it was advertised as a personal computer for anyone and not just large corporations, and because it was small and could fit easily into people's home, it became a device of popular choice for many people. It

title: History of IBM

text: — was an advanced storage technology which more than doubled the information density on disk surfaces. Winchester technology was adopted by the industry and used for the next two decades. Some 1970s-era IBM technologies emerged to become familiar facets of everyday life. IBM developed magnetic stripe technology in the 1960s, and it became a credit card industry standard in 1971. The IBM-invented floppy disk, also introduced in 1971, became the standard for storing personal computer data during the first decades of the PC era. IBM Research scientist Edgar 'Ted' Codd wrote a seminal paper describing the relational database – an

title: PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes

text: mainframe version of VM/CMS, the VM/PC also created the illusion of virtual disks, but on the PC version these were maintained as PC-DOS files, either on floppy or hard disk. For example, the CMS virtual disk belonging to user FRED at device address 101 was stored as the DOS file FRED.101. The CMS IMPORT and EXPORT commands allowed extraction of files from these virtual drives as well as ASCII/EBCDIC conversion. The XT/370 came with an XT-style 83-key keyboard (10 function keys). Newer revisions of the XT/370 dropped the PC3277-EM in favor of the IBM 3278/79 boards. The XT/370 was among

title: History of IBM

text: of the 1990s. Still, IBM investments and advances in microprocessors, disk drives, network technologies, software applications, and online commerce in the 1980s set the stage for the emergence of the connected world in the 1990s. But by the end of the decade, IBM was clearly in trouble. It was a bloated organization of some 400,000 employees that was heavily invested in low margin, transactional, commodity businesses. Technologies IBM invented and or commercialized – DRAM, hard disk drives, the PC, electric typewriters – were starting to erode. The company had a massive international organization characterized by redundant processes and functions –

title: PC Paintbrush

text: PC Paintbrush PC Paintbrush is graphics editing software created by the ZSoft Corporation in 1984 for computers running the MS-DOS operating system. It was originally developed as a response to the first paintbrush program for the IBM PC, "PCPaint", which had been released the prior year by Mouse Systems, the company responsible for bringing the mouse to the IBM PC for the first time. In 1984, Mouse Systems had released "PCPaint" to compete with Apple Paint on the Apple II computer and was already positioned to compete with "MacPaint" on Apple Computer's new Macintosh platform. Unlike "MacPaint", "PCPaint" enabled users

title: IBM PC compatible

text: mainstream desktop and laptop computers are based on the PC architecture, and IBM no longer makes PCs. The competing hardware architectures have either been discontinued or, like the Amiga, have been relegated to niche, enthusiast markets. In the past, the most successful exception was Apple's Macintosh platform, which used non-Intel processors from its inception. Although Macintosh was initially based on the Motorola 68000 family, then transitioned to the PowerPC architecture, Macintosh computers transitioned to Intel processors beginning in 2006. Today's Macintosh computers share the same system architecture as their Wintel counterparts and can boot Microsoft Windows without a DOS Compatibility

title: IBM PC compatible

text: systems run all software that conforms to IBM PC programming standards. And the most popular software does." When a "BYTE" journalist asked to test Peachtext at the Spring 1983 COMDEX, Corona representatives "hemmed and hawed a bit, but they finally led me ... off in the corner where no one would see it should it fail". The magazine reported that "Their hesitancy was unnecessary. The disk booted up without a problem". Zenith Data Systems was bolder, bragging that its Z-150 ran all applications people brought to test with at the 1984 West Coast Computer Faire. "Creative Computing" in 1985 stated,

title: IBM PC DOS

text: blocks and loadable device drivers could now be used for adding hardware beyond that which the IBM PC BIOS supported. BASIC and most of the utilities provided with DOS were substantially upgraded as well. A major undertaking that took almost 10 months of work, DOS 2.0 was more than twice as big as DOS 1.x, occupying around 28k of RAM compared to the 12k of its predecessor. It would form the basis for all Microsoft consumer-oriented OSes until 2001, when Windows XP (based on Windows NT) was released. In October 1983 (officially November 1) DOS 2.1 debuted. It fixed some

title: Siemens PC-D

text: fully IBM compatible PCs, causing most DOS applications to crash on the PC-D unless they were recompiled or patched, making them incompatible with IBM PCs. Windows applications could usually be exchanged between both platforms. The PC-X shipped with SINIX. Siemens PC-D The PC-D and PC-X were personal computers sold by Siemens between 1982 (PC-X)/1984 (PC-D) and 1986. The PC-D was the first MS-DOS-based PC sold by Siemens, though it was not fully compatible with the IBM PC architecture. It was succeeded by the PCD-2. The PCD-2 was fully IBM PC compatible. Most of the hardware was identical. While the PC-X

title: IBM PC keyboard

text: controls, media player controls, and miscellaneous user-configurable shortcuts for email client, World Wide Web browser, etc. The IBM PC layout, particularly the Model M, has been extremely influential, and today most keyboards use some variant of it. This has caused problems for applications developed with alternative layouts, which require keys that are in awkward positions on the Model M layout – often requiring the pinkie to operate – and thus require remapping for comfortable use. One notable example is the Escape key, used by the vi editor: on the ADM-3A terminal this was located where the Tab key is on

title: IBM PC compatible

text: to IBM both for the PS/2 bus and any prior AT-bus designs produced by the company seeking a license. This was unpopular with hardware manufacturers and several competing bus standards were developed by consortiums, with more agreeable license terms. Various attempts to standardize the interfaces were made, but in practice, many of these attempts were either flawed or ignored. Even so, there were many expansion options, and despite the confusion of its users, the PC compatible design advanced much faster than other competing designs of the time, even if only because of its market dominance. During the 1990s, IBM's influence

title: IBM PC compatible

text: of the great number of third-party adapters and no standard for them, programming the PC could be difficult. Professional developers would operate a large test-suite of various known-to-be-popular hardware combinations. Meanwhile, consumers were overwhelmed by the competing, incompatible standards and many different combinations of hardware on offer. To give them some idea of what sort of PC they would need to operate their software, the Multimedia PC (MPC) standard was set during 1990. A PC that met the minimum MPC standard could be marketed with the MPC logo, giving consumers an easy-to-understand specification to look for. Software that could operate

text: to many competitors all creating "IBM-compatible" machines. The IBM PC used the then-new Intel 8088 processor. Like other 16-bit CPUs, it could access up to 1 megabyte of RAM, but it used an 8-bit-wide data bus to memory and peripherals. This design allowed use of the large, readily available, and relatively inexpensive family of 8-bit-compatible support chips. IBM decided to use the Intel 8088 after first considering the Motorola 68000 and the Intel i8086, because the other two were considered to be too powerful for their needs. Although already established rivals like Apple and Radio Shack had many advantages over

text: the company new to microcomputers, IBM's reputation in business computing allowed the IBM PC architecture to take a substantial market share of business applications, and many small companies that sold IBM-compatible software or hardware rapidly grew in size and importance, including Tecmar, Quadram, AST Research, and Microsoft. As of mid-1982, three other mainframe and minicomputer companies sold microcomputers, but unlike IBM Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, and Control Data Corporation chose the CP/M operating system. Many other companies made "business personal computers" using their own proprietary designs, some still using 8-bit microprocessors. The ones that used Intel x86 processors often used the generic,