IBM Personal Computer

The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as

the IBM PC) is the first computer released in the IBM PC model IBM Personal Computer
line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard.
Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team of
engineers and designers directed by Don Estridge in Boca Raton,
Florida.

The machine was based on open architecture and a substantial

market of third-party peripherals, expansion cards and software
grew up rapidly to support it.
IBM Personal Computer with
The PC had a substantial influence on the personal computer keyboard and monitor
market. The specifications of the IBM PC became one of the most
Manufacturer IBM
popular computer design standards in the world, and the only
significant competition it faced from a non-compatible platform Type Personal Computer
throughout the 1980s was from the Apple Macintosh product line. Generation First generation
The majority of modern personal computers are distant
descendants of the IBM PC. Release date August 12, 1981
Introductory Starting at
price US$1,565
(equivalent to
Contents
$4,455 in 2020)
History Discontinued April 2, 1987
Design process
Operating IBM BASIC / PC
Debut
system DOS 1.0
Success
CP/M-86
Hardware
Motherboard UCSD p-System

CPU and RAM CPU Intel 8088 @

ROM BIOS 4.77 MHz
Display Memory 16 kB – 640 kB
Storage Sound PC speaker 1-
Human interface channel square-
Communications wave/1-bit digital
Expansion (PWM-capable)
Software Predecessor IBM System/23
Reception Datamaster

Model line Successor IBM Personal

Clones Computer XT
IBM Personal
References
System/2
External links
IBM PCjr
History IBM Portable
Personal Computer
Prior to the 1980s, IBM had largely been known as a provider of IBM PC Convertible
[1]
business computer systems. As the 1980s opened, their market
share in the growing minicomputer market failed to keep up with competitors, while other manufacturers
were beginning to see impressive profits in the microcomputer space. The market for personal computers
was dominated at the time by Tandy, Commodore and Apple, whose machines sold for several hundred
dollars each and had become very popular. The microcomputer market was large enough for IBM's
attention, with $15 billion in sales by 1979 and projected annual growth of more than 40% during the early
1980s. Other large technology companies had entered it, such as Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments and
Data General, and some large IBM customers were buying Apples.[2][3]

As early as 1980 there were rumors of IBM developing a personal computer, possibly a miniaturized
version of the IBM System/370,[4] and Matsushita acknowledged publicly that it had discussed with IBM
the possibility of manufacturing a personal computer in partnership, although this project was
abandoned.[5][6] The public responded to these rumors with skepticism, owing to IBM's tendency towards
slow-moving, bureaucratic business practices tailored towards the production of large, sophisticated and
expensive business systems.[7] As with other large computer companies, its new products typically required
about four to five years for development,[8][9] and a well publicized quote from an industry analyst was,
"IBM bringing out a personal computer would be like teaching an elephant to tap dance."[10]

IBM had previously produced microcomputers, such as 1975's IBM 5100, but targeted them towards
businesses; the 5100 had a price tag as high as $20,000.[11] Their entry into the home computer market
needed to be competitively priced.

In 1980, IBM president John Opel, recognizing the value of entering this growing market, assigned William
C. Lowe to the new Entry Level Systems unit in Boca Raton, Florida. Market research found that computer
dealers were very interested in selling an IBM product, but they insisted the company use a design based on
standard parts, not IBM-designed ones so that stores could perform their own repairs rather than requiring
customers to send machines back to IBM for service.[12]

Atari proposed to IBM in 1980 that it act as original equipment manufacturer for an IBM
microcomputer,[13] a potential solution to IBM's known inability to move quickly to meet a rapidly
changing market. The idea of acquiring Atari was considered but rejected in favor of a proposal by Lowe
that by forming an independent internal working group and abandoning all traditional IBM methods, a
design could be delivered within a year and a prototype within 30 days. The prototype worked poorly but
was presented with a detailed business plan which proposed that the new computer have an open
architecture, use non-proprietary components and software, and be sold through retail stores, all contrary to
IBM practice. It also estimated sales of 220,000 computers over three years, more than IBM's entire
installed base.[14][15]

This swayed the Corporate Management Committee, which converted the group into a business unit named
"Project Chess", and provided the necessary funding and authority to do whatever was needed to develop
the computer in the given timeframe. The team received permission to expand to 150 people by the end of
1980, and one day more than 500 IBM employees called in asking to join.

Design process

The design process was kept under a policy of strict secrecy, with none of the other IBM divisions knowing
what was going on.[16]
Several CPUs were considered, including the Texas Instruments TMS9900, Motorola 68000 and Intel
8088. The 68000 was considered the best choice,[17] but was not production-ready like the others.[18] The
IBM 801 RISC processor was also considered, since it was considerably more powerful than the other
options, but rejected due to the design constraint to use off-the-shelf parts.

IBM chose the 8088 over the similar but superior 8086 because Intel offered a better price for the former
and could provide more units,[19] and the 8088's 8-bit bus reduced the cost of the rest of the computer. The
8088 had the advantage that IBM already had familiarity with it from designing the IBM System/23
Datamaster. The 62-pin expansion bus slots were also designed to be similar to the Datamaster slots,[20]
and its keyboard design and layout would become the Model F keyboard shipped with the PC,[21] but
otherwise the PC design differed in many ways.

The 8088 motherboard was designed in 40 days,[22] with a working prototype created in four months,[23]
demonstrated in January 1981. The design was essentially complete by April 1981, when it was handed off
to the manufacturing team.[24] PCs were assembled in an IBM plant in Boca Raton, with components made
at various IBM and third party factories. The monitor was an existing design from IBM Japan, the printer
was manufactured by Epson.[25] Because none of the functional components were designed by IBM, they
obtained no patents on the PC.[26]

Many of the designers were computer hobbyists who owned their own computers,[8] including many
Apple II owners, which influenced the decisions to design the computer with an open architecture[27] and
publish technical information so others could create software and expansion slot peripherals.[28]

During the design process IBM avoided vertical integration as much as possible, choosing for example to
license Microsoft BASIC despite having a version of BASIC of its own for mainframes, due to the better
existing public familiarity with the Microsoft version.[29]

Debut

The IBM PC debuted on August 12, 1981 after a twelve-month development. Pricing started at $1,565 for
a configuration with 16K RAM, Color Graphics Adapter, and no disk drives. The price was designed to
compete with comparable machines in the market.[30] For comparison, the Datamaster, announced two
weeks earlier as IBM's least expensive computer, cost $10,000.[31]

IBM's marketing campaign licensed the likeness of Charlie Chaplin's character "The Little Tramp" for a
series of advertisements based on Chaplin's movies, played by Billy Scudder.[32]

The PC was IBM's first attempt to sell a computer through retail channels rather than directly to customers.
Because IBM did not have retail experience, they partnered with the retail chains ComputerLand and Sears
Roebuck, who provided important knowledge of the marketplace[33][34][35][36] and became the main
outlets for the PC. More than 190 ComputerLand stores already existed, while Sears was in the process of
creating a handful of in-store computer centers for sale of the new product.

Reception was overwhelmingly positive, with sales estimates from analysts suggesting billions of dollars in
sales over the next few years,[37] and the IBM PC immediately became the talk of the entire computing
industry.[38] Dealers were overwhelmed with orders, including customers offering pre-payment for
machines with no guaranteed delivery date.[30] By the time the machine was shipping, the term "PC" was
becoming a household name.[39]

Success
Sales exceeded IBM's expectations by as much as 800%, shipping 40,000 PCs a month at one point.[40]
The company estimated that 50 to 70% of PCs sold in retail stores went to the home.[41] In 1983 they sold
more than 750,000 machines,[42] while DEC, a competitor whose success among others had spurred them
to enter the market, had sold only 69,000 machines in that period.[43]

Software support from the industry grew rapidly, with the IBM nearly instantly becoming the primary target
for most microcomputer software development.[31] One publication counted 753 software packages
available a year after the PC's release, four times as many as the Macintosh had a year after release.[44]
Hardware support also grew rapidly, with 30–40 companies competing to sell memory expansion cards
within a year.[45]

By 1984, IBM's revenue from the PC market was $4 billion, more than twice that of Apple.[46] A 1983
study of corporate customers found that two thirds of large customers standardizing on one computer chose
the PC, compared to 9% for Apple.[47] A 1985 Fortune survey found that 56% of American companies
with personal computers used PCs, compared to Apple's 16%.[48]

Almost as soon as the PC reached the market, rumors of clones began,[49] and the first PC compatible
clone was released in June 1982, less than a year after the PC's debut.

Hardware
For low cost and a quick design turnaround time, the hardware
design of the IBM PC used entirely "off-the-shelf" parts from third
party manufacturers, rather than unique hardware designed by
IBM.[50]

The PC is housed in a wide, short steel chassis intended to support

the weight of a CRT monitor. The front panel is made of plastic,
with an opening where one or two disk drives can be installed.
The back panel houses a power inlet and switch, a keyboard
connector, and a series of tall vertical slots with blank metal panels Internal view of a PC compatible
which can be removed in order to install expansion cards. computer, showing components and
layout.
Internally, the chassis is dominated by a motherboard which
houses the CPU, built-in RAM, expansion RAM sockets, and slots
for expansion cards.

The IBM PC was highly expandable and upgradeable, but the base factory configuration included:
 CPU Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz
RAM 16kB or 64kB (expandable to 256kB)
IBM Monochrome Display Adapter or
Video
IBM Color Graphics Adapter

IBM 5151 monochrome display

IBM 5153 color display

Display
Composite-input television

Input IBM Model F 83-key keyboard with five-pin connector

Sound Single programmable-frequency square wave with built-in speaker
Up to two 5.25", 160K/320K (single/double sided) floppy disk drives

Port for attaching to cassette tape recorder

Storage
Optional hard disk drive

Five 62-pin expansion slots attached to 8-bit CPU I/O bus

Expansion
IBM 5161 Expansion Chassis with four extra I/O slots

Communication Optional serial and parallel ports

Motherboard

The PC is built around a single large circuit board called a motherboard which carries the processor, built-in
RAM, expansion slots, keyboard and cassette ports, and the various peripheral integrated circuits that
connected and controlled the components of the machine.

The peripheral chips included an Intel 8259 PIC, an Intel 8237 DMA controller, and an Intel 8253 PIT.
The PIT provides 18.2 Hz clock "ticks" and dynamic memory refresh timing, and is used to generate the
PC speaker sound output.[51]

CPU and RAM

The CPU is an Intel 8088, a cost-reduced form of the Intel 8086 which largely retains the 8086's internal
16-bit logic, but exposes only an 8-bit bus.[52] The CPU is clocked at 4.77 MHz, which would eventually
become an issue when clones and later PC models offered higher CPU speeds that broke compatibility with
software developed for the original PC.[53] The single base clock frequency for the system was 14.31818
MHz, which when divided by 3, yielded the 4.77 MHz for the CPU (which was considered close enough
to the then 5 MHz limit of the 8088), and when divided by 4, yielded the required 3.579545 MHz for the
NTSC color carrier frequency.

The PC motherboard included a second, empty socket, described by IBM simply as an "auxiliary processor
socket", although the most obvious use was the addition of an Intel 8087 math coprocessor, which
improved floating-point math performance.[54]
From the factory the PC was equipped with either 16 kB or 64 kB
of RAM. RAM upgrades were provided both by IBM and third
parties as expansion cards, and could upgrade the machine to a
maximum of 256kB.[52]

ROM BIOS

The BIOS is the firmware of the IBM PC, occupying four 2kB
ROM chips on the motherboard. It provides bootstrap code and a Original IBM Personal Computer
library of common functions that all software can use for many motherboard
purposes, such as video output, keyboard input, disk access,
interrupt handling, testing memory, and other functions. IBM
shipped several versions of the BIOS throughout the PC's lifespan.

Display

While most home computers had built-in video output hardware,

IBM took the unusual approach of offering two different graphics
options, the MDA and CGA cards. The former provided high-
resolution monochrome text, but could not display anything except
text, while the latter provided medium- and low-resolution color
graphics and text.

CGA used the same scan rate as NTSC television, allowing it to

provide a composite video output which could be used with any
compatible television or composite monitor, as well as a direct- IBM PC with MDA monitor
drive TTL output suitable for use with any RGBI monitor using an
NTSC scan rate. IBM also sold the 5153 color monitor for this
purpose, but it was not available at release[55] and would not be released until March 1983.[56]

MDA scanned at a higher frequency and required a proprietary monitor, the IBM 5151. The card also
included a built-in printer port.[57]

Both cards could also be installed simultaneously for mixed graphics and text applications.[58] For instance,
AutoCAD, Lotus 1-2-3 and other software allowed use of a CGA Monitor for graphics and a separate
monochrome monitor for text menus. Third parties would go on to provide an enormous variety of
aftermarket graphics adapters, such as the Hercules Graphics Card.

The software and hardware of the PC, at release, was designed around a single 8-bit adaptation of the
ASCII character set, now known as code page 437.

Storage

The two bays in the front of the machine could be populated with one or two 5.25" floppy disk drives,
storing 160kB per disk side for a total of 320kB of storage on one disk.[57] The floppy drives require a
controller card inserted in an expansion slot, and connect with a single ribbon cable with two edge
connectors. The IBM floppy controller card provides an external 37-pin D-sub connector for attachment of
an external disk drive, although IBM did not offer one for purchase until 1986.
As was common for home computers of the era, the IBM PC offered a port for connecting a cassette data
recorder. Unlike the typical home computer however, this was never a major avenue for software
distribution,[59] probably because very few PCs were sold without floppy drives. The port was removed on
the very next PC model, the XT.[60]

At release, IBM did not offer any hard disk drive option[52] and adding one was difficult - the PC's stock
power supply had inadequate power to run a hard drive, the motherboard did not support BIOS expansion
ROMs which was needed to support a hard drive controller, and both PC DOS and the BIOS had no
support for hard disks. After the XT was released, IBM altered the design of the 5150 to add most of these
capabilities, except for the upgraded power supply. At this point adding a hard drive was possible, but
required the purchase of the IBM 5161 Expansion Unit, which contained a dedicated power supply and
included a hard drive.[61]

Although official hard drive support did not exist, the third party market did provide early hard drives that
connected to the floppy disk controller, but required a patched version of PC DOS to support the larger disk
sizes.

Human interface

The only option for human interface provided in the base PC was
the built-in keyboard port, meant to connect to the included IBM
Model F keyboard. The Model F was initially developed for the
IBM Datamaster, and was substantially better than the keyboards
IBM Model F keyboard provided with virtually all home computers on the market at that
time in many regards - number of keys, reliability and ergonomics.
While some home computers of the time utilized chiclet keyboards
or inexpensive mechanical designs, the IBM keyboard provided good ergonomics, reliable and positive
tactile key mechanisms and flip-up feet to adjust its angle.

Public reception of the keyboard was extremely positive, with some sources describing it as a major selling
point of the PC and even as "the best keyboard available on any microcomputer."[57]

At release, IBM provided a Game Control Adapter which offered a 15-pin port intended for the connection
of up to two joysticks, each having two analog axes and two buttons.

Communications

Connectivity to other computers and peripherals was initially

provided through serial and parallel ports.

IBM provided a serial card based on an 8250 UART. The BIOS

supports up to two serial ports.
IBM Personal Computer with IBM CGA
IBM provided two different options for connecting Centronics- monitor (model 5153), IBM PC keyboard,
compatible parallel printers. One was the IBM Printer Adapter, and IBM 5152 printer and paper stand. (1988)
the other was integrated into the MDA as the IBM Monochrome
Display and Printer Adapter.

Expansion
The expansion capability of the IBM PC was very significant to its
success in the market. Some publications highlighted IBM's
uncharacteristic decision to publish complete, thorough
specifications of the system bus and memory map immediately on
release, with the intention of fostering a market of compatible
third-party hardware and software.[62]

The motherboard includes five 62-pin card edge connectors which

are connected to the CPU's I/O lines. IBM referred to these as "I/O The back of a PC, showing the five
slots," but after the expansion of the PC clone industry they expansion slots
became retroactively known as the ISA bus. At the back of the
machine is a metal panel, integrated into the steel chassis of the
system unit, with a series of vertical slots lined up with each card slot.

Most expansion cards have a matching metal bracket which slots into one of these openings, serving two
purposes. First, a screw inserted through a tab on the bracket into the chassis fastens the card securely in
place, preventing the card from wiggling out of place. Second, any ports the card provides for external
attachment are bolted to the bracket, keeping them secured in place as well.

The PC expansion slots can accept an enormous variety of expansion hardware, adding capabilities such
as:

Graphics
Sound
Mouse support
Expanded memory
Additional serial or parallel ports
Networking
Connection to proprietary industrial or scientific equipment

The market reacted as IBM had intended, and within a year or two of the PC's release the available options
for expansion hardware were immense.

5161 Expansion Unit

The expandability of the PC was important, but had significant limitations.

One major limitation was the inability to install a hard drive, as described above. Another was that there
were only five expansion slots, which tended to get filled up by essential hardware - a PC with a graphics
card, memory expansion, parallel card and serial card was left with only one open slot, for instance.

IBM rectified these problems in the later XT, which included more slots and support for an internal hard
drive, but at the same time released the 5161 Expansion Unit, which could be used with either the XT or
the original PC. The 5161 connected to the PC system unit using a cable and a card plugged into an
expansion slot, and provided a second system chassis with more expansion slots and a hard drive.

Software
IBM initially announced intent to support multiple operating systems: CP/M-86, UCSD p-System,[63] and
an in-house product called IBM PC DOS, developed by Microsoft.[64][8] In practice, IBM's expectation
and intent was for the market to primarily use PC-DOS,[65] CP/M-86 was not available for six months after
the PC's release[66] and received extremely few orders once it
was,[67] and p-System was also not available at release. PC DOS
rapidly established itself as the standard OS for the PC and
remained the standard for over a decade, with a variant being sold
by Microsoft themselves as MS-DOS.

The PC included BASIC in ROM, a common feature of 1980s

home computers. Its ROM BASIC supported the cassette tape PC-DOS 3.30 running on an IBM PC
interface, but PC DOS did not, limiting use of that interface to
BASIC only.

PC DOS version 1.00 supported only 160 kB SSDD floppies, but

version 1.1, which was released nine months after the PC's
introduction, supported 160 kB SSDD and 320 kB DSDD
floppies. Support for the slightly larger nine sector per track
180 kB and 360 kB formats was added in March 1983.

Third-party software support grew extremely quickly, and within a Digital Research CP/M-86 Version
year the PC platform was supplied with a vast array of titles for 1.0 for the IBM PC
any conceivable purpose.

Reception
Reception of the IBM PC was extremely positive. Even before its release reviewers were impressed by the
advertised specifications of the machine, and upon its release reviews praised virtually every aspect of its
design both in comparison to contemporary machines and with regards to new and unexpected features.

Praise was directed at the build quality of the PC, in particular its keyboard, IBM's decision to use open
specifications to encourage third party software and hardware development, their speed at delivering
documentation and the quality therein, the quality of the video display, and the use of commodity
components from established suppliers in the electronics industry.[68] The price was considered extremely
competitive compared to the value per dollar of competing machines.[55]

Two years after its release, BYTE Magazine retrospectively concluded that the PC had succeeded both
because of its features – an 80-column screen, open architecture, and high-quality keyboard – and the
failure of other computer manufacturers to achieve these features first:

In retrospect, it seems IBM stepped into a void that remained, paradoxically, at the center of a
crowded market.[69]

Creative Computing that year named the PC the best desktop computer between $2000 and $4000, praising
its vast hardware and software selection, manufacturer support, and resale value.[70]

Many IBM PCs remained in service long after their technology became largely obsolete. For instance, as of
June 2006 (23–25 years after release) IBM PC and XT models were still in use at the majority of U.S.
National Weather Service upper-air observing sites, processing data returned from radiosonde attached to
weather balloons.

Due to its status as the first entry in the extremely influential PC industry, the original IBM PC remains
valuable as a collector's item. As of 2007, the system had a market value of $50–$500.[71]
Model line
IBM sold a number of computers under the "Personal Computer" or "PC" name throughout the 80s. The
name was not used for several years before being reused for the IBM PC Series in the 90s and early 2000s.

The IBM PC line

Model
Model # Introduced Discontinued CPU Features
name

PC 5150
August
April 1987 8088 Floppy disk or cassette system.[72] One or
1981 two internal floppy drives were optional.
March First IBM PC to come with an internal hard
XT 5160 April 1987 8088
1983 drive as standard.
October 5160 with XT/370 Option Kit and 3277
XT/370 5160/588 April 1987 8088
1983 Emulation Adapter.
October With 3270 terminal emulation, 20 function key
3270 PC 5271 April 1987 8088
1983 keyboard
November Floppy-based home computer, but also used
PCjr 4860 March 1985 8088
1983 ROM cartridges; infrared keyboard.
February
Portable 5155 April 1986 8088 Floppy-based portable
1984
Faster processor, faster system bus (6 MHz,
August
AT 5170 April 1987 80286 later 8 MHz, vs 4.77 MHz), jumperless
1984
configuration, real-time clock.
October 5170 with AT/370 Option Kit and 3277
AT/370 5170/599 April 1987 80286
1984 Emulation Adapter.
June
3270 AT 5281 April 1987 80286 With 3270 terminal emulation.
1985[73]
Convertible 5140 April 1986 August 1989 80C88 Microfloppy laptop portable
Slow hard disk, but zero wait state memory on
the motherboard. This 6 MHz machine was
September
XT 286 5162 April 1987 80286 actually faster than the 8 MHz ATs (when
1986
using planar memory) because of the zero
wait states.

As with all PC-derived systems, all IBM PC models are nominally software-compatible, although some
timing-sensitive software will not run correctly on models with faster CPUs.

Clones
Because the IBM PC was based on commodity hardware rather than unique IBM components, and
because its operation was extensively documented by IBM, creating machines that were fully compatible
with the PC offered few challenges other than the creation of a compatible BIOS ROM.

Simple duplication of the IBM PC BIOS was a direct violation of copyright law, but soon into the PC's life
the BIOS was reverse-engineered by companies like Compaq, Phoenix Software Associates, American
Megatrends and Award, who either built their own computers that could run the same software and use the
same expansion hardware as the PC, or sold their BIOS code to other manufacturers who wished to build
their own machines.
These machines became known as IBM compatibles or "clones", and software was widely marketed as
compatible with "IBM PC or 100% compatible". Shortly thereafter, clone manufacturers began to make
improvements and extensions to the hardware, such as by using faster processors like the NEC V20, which
executed the same software as the 8088 at a higher speed up to 10 MHz.

The clone market eventually became so large that it lost its associations with the original PC and became a
set of de facto standards established by various hardware manufacturers.

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External links
IBM SCAMP ([Link]
IBM 5150 information at [Link] ([Link]
IBM PC 5150 System Disks and ROMs ([Link]
der=IBM/PC-5150)
IBM PC from IT Dictionary ([Link]
g/term/IBM_PC.aspx)
IBM PC history and technical information ([Link]
[Link]?c=274)
What a legacy! The IBM PC's 25 year legacy ([Link]
[Link] - IBM PC turns 25 ([Link]
ry/[Link])
IBM-5150 ([Link] and collection of old digital
and analog computers at [Link]
IBM PC images and information ([Link] Archived
([Link]
ml) July 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
A brochure from November, 1982 advertising the IBM PC ([Link]
982-ibm-personal-computer/)
A Picture of the XT/370 cards, showing the dual 68000 processors ([Link]
mgres?imgurl=[Link]
om/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/[Link]&usg=__hfms9QIM7ODhMa7oycO
3YzpCSr4=&h=1680&w=2240&sz=1107&hl=en&start=24&zoom=1&tbnid=oczfii5c6zO6KM:
&tbnh=127&tbnw=153&ei=NTZkTdyCKYu4sQPP6cTdCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3DIBM%2
BAT/370%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1355%26bih%3D744%26tb
s%3Disch:10%2C811&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=632&vpy=213&dur=6215&hovh=194&h
 ovw=259&tx=62&ty=219&oei=HTZkTfDHBpPksQP51PHCCA&page=2&ndsp=28&ved=1t:4
29,r:17,s:24&biw=1355&bih=744)

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