in 1983 (at the
American Museum of Science and Energy), an early example of a personal computer produced in
Bulgaria from 1982, in a classroom in the
Soviet Union Origins In the
history of computing, early experimental machines could be operated by a single attendant. For example,
ENIAC which became operational in 1946 could be run by a single, albeit highly trained, person. This mode pre-dated the batch programming, or time-sharing modes with multiple users connected through
terminals to mainframe computers. Computers intended for laboratory, instrumentation, or engineering purposes were built, and could be operated by one person in an interactive fashion. Examples include such systems as the
Bendix G15 and
LGP-30 of 1956, and the Soviet
MIR series of computers developed from 1965 to 1969. By the early 1970s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a
computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person.
1960s The personal computer was made possible by major advances in
semiconductor technology. In 1959, the
silicon integrated circuit (IC) chip was developed by
Robert Noyce at
Fairchild Semiconductor, and the
metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistor was developed by
Mohamed Atalla and
Dawon Kahng at
Bell Labs. The MOS integrated circuit was commercialized by
RCA in 1964, and then the
silicon-gate MOS integrated circuit was developed by
Federico Faggin at Fairchild in 1968. Faggin later used silicon-gate MOS technology to develop the first single-chip
microprocessor, the
Intel 4004, in 1971. The first
microcomputers, based on microprocessors, were developed during the early 1970s. Widespread commercial availability of microprocessors, from the mid-1970s onwards, made computers cheap enough for small businesses and individuals to own. In what was later to be called
the Mother of All Demos,
SRI researcher
Douglas Engelbart in 1968 gave a preview of features that would later become staples of personal computers:
e-mail,
hypertext,
word processing,
video conferencing, and the
mouse. The demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time.
1970s Early personal computersgenerally called microcomputerswere often sold in a
kit form and in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians. Minimal programming was done with toggle switches to enter instructions, and output was provided by
front panel lamps. Practical use required adding peripherals such as keyboards,
computer displays,
disk drives, and
printers.
Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit microcomputer based on a microprocessor, the
Intel 8008. It was built starting in 1972, and a few hundred units were sold. This had been preceded by the
Datapoint 2200 in 1970, for which the Intel 8008 had been commissioned, though not accepted for use. The CPU design implemented in the Datapoint 2200 became the basis for
x86 architecture used in the original
IBM PC and its descendants. In 1973, the
IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed a
portable computer prototype called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the
IBM PALM processor with a
Philips compact cassette drive, small
CRT, and full function keyboard. SCAMP emulated an
IBM 1130 minicomputer in order to run APL/1130. In 1973,
APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most desktop sized microcomputers such as the
Wang 2200 or
HP 9800 offered only
BASIC. Because SCAMP was the first to emulate APL/1130 performance on a portable, single user computer,
PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer". This seminal, single user
portable computer now resides in the
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.. Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype led to the
IBM 5100 portable microcomputer launched in 1975 with the ability to be programmed in both APL and BASIC for engineers, analysts, statisticians, and other business problem-solvers. In the late 1960s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton. A seminal step in personal computing was the 1973
Xerox Alto, developed at
Xerox's
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). It had a graphical user interface (
GUI) which later served as inspiration for Apple's
Macintosh, and Microsoft's
Windows operating system. The Alto was a demonstration project, not commercialized, as the parts were too expensive to be affordable. Also in 1973
Hewlett Packard introduced fully
BASIC programmable microcomputers that fit entirely on top of a desk, including a keyboard, a small one-line display, and printer. The
Wang 2200 microcomputer of 1973 had a full-size
cathode ray tube (CRT) and cassette tape storage. These were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses. , one of the first personal computers 1974 saw the introduction of what is considered by many to be the first true personal computer, the
Altair 8800 created by
Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). Based on the 8-bit
Intel 8080 Microprocessor, the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the
microcomputer revolution as the first commercially successful personal computer. The
computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a
de facto standard in the form of the
S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product,
Altair BASIC. In 1976,
Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak sold the
Apple I computer circuit board, which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips. The Apple I computer differed from the other kit-style hobby computers of the era. At the request of
Paul Terrell, owner of the
Byte Shop, Jobs and Wozniak were given their first purchase order, for 50 Apple I computers, only if the computers were assembled and tested and not a kit computer. Terrell wanted to have computers to sell to a wide range of users, not just experienced electronics hobbyists who had the soldering skills to assemble a computer kit. The
Apple I as delivered was still technically a kit computer, as it did not have a power supply, case, or keyboard when it was delivered to the Byte Shop. The first successfully mass-marketed personal computer to be announced was the
Commodore PET after being revealed in January 1977. However, it was back-ordered and not available until later that year. Three months later (April), the
Apple II (usually referred to as the Apple) was announced with the first units being shipped 10 June 1977, and the
TRS-80 from
Tandy Corporation /
Tandy Radio Shack following in August 1977, which sold over 100,000 units during its lifetime. Together, especially in the North American market, these 3 machines were referred to as the "1977 trinity". Mass-market, ready-assembled computers had arrived, and allowed a wider range of people to use computers, focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware. In 1977 the Heath company introduced personal computer kits known as
Heathkits, starting with the
Heathkit H8, followed by the Heathkit H89 in late 1979. With the purchase of the Heathkit H8 you would obtain the chassis and CPU card to assemble yourself, additional hardware such as the H8-1 memory board that contained 4k of RAM could also be purchased in order to run software. The Heathkit H11 model was released in 1978 and was one of the first 16-bit personal computers; however, due to its high retail cost of $1,295 was discontinued in 1982.
1980s , released in 1981 personal computer produced in 1985–1990 by the
Tesla company in the former
Socialist Czechoslovakia During the early 1980s,
home computers were further developed for household use, with software for personal productivity, programming and games. They typically could be used with a television already in the home as the computer display, with low-detail blocky graphics and a limited color range, and text about 40 characters wide by 25 characters tall.
Sinclair Research, a UK company, produced the ZX Seriesthe
ZX80 (1980),
ZX81 (1981), and the
ZX Spectrum; the latter was introduced in 1982, and totaled 8 million unit sold. Following came the
Commodore 64, totaled 17 million units sold, the
Galaksija (1983) introduced in
Yugoslavia and the
Amstrad CPC series (464–6128). In the same year, the
NEC PC-98 was introduced, which was a very popular personal computer that sold in more than 18 million units. Another famous personal computer, the revolutionary
Amiga 1000, was unveiled by
Commodore on 23 July 1985. The Amiga 1000 featured a multitasking, windowing operating system, color graphics with a 4096-color palette, stereo sound, Motorola 68000 CPU, 256 KB RAM, and 880 KB 3.5-inch disk drive, for US$1,295. IBM's first PC, the
IBM 5150, was introduced on 12 August 1981. It operated with the
Intel 8088 chip, which could run at 5
megahertz (later 16 MHz) and use 1
megabyte of memory. The 5150's
operating system, which was provided by
Microsoft, later became known as
MS-DOS. It was priced at US$1,565 and came with two programs, a spreadsheet client
VisiCalc and a word processor
EasyWriter. Customers could pay an additional $3,000 to add a display, diskette drives and a printer. The 5150's
open architecture (IBM encouraged companies to develop software and peripherals for the computer) set a mass market standard for PC design. In 1982 the personal computer, dubbed
The Computer, was named
Machine of the Year by
Time magazine. Somewhat larger and more expensive systems were aimed at office and small business use. These often featured 80-column text displays but might not have had graphics or sound capabilities. These microprocessor-based systems were still less costly than time-shared mainframes or minicomputers.
Workstations were characterized by high-performance processors and graphics displays, with large-capacity local disk storage, networking capability, and running under a
multitasking operating system. Eventually, due to the
influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market, personal computers and home computers lost any technical distinction. Business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound, and home computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers. Mass-market computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of a few years before. Even local area networking, originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals, became a standard feature of personal computers used at home. An increasingly important set of uses for personal computers relied on the ability of the computer to communicate with other computer systems, allowing interchange of information. Experimental public access to a shared mainframe computer system was demonstrated as early as 1973 in the
Community Memory project, but
bulletin board systems and
online service providers became more commonly available after 1978. Commercial
Internet service providers emerged in the late 1980s, giving public access to the rapidly growing network. In 1984,
Apple Computer launched the
Macintosh, with an
advertisement during the Super Bowl. The Macintosh was the first successful mass-market
mouse-driven computer with a
graphical user interface or 'WIMP' (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers). Based on the
Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Macintosh included many of the Lisa's features at a price of US$2,495. The Macintosh was introduced with 128 KB of RAM and later that year a 512 KB RAM model became available. To reduce costs compared to the Lisa, the year-younger Macintosh had a simplified motherboard design, no internal hard drive, and a single 3.5-inch floppy drive. Applications that came with the Macintosh included
MacPaint, a bit-mapped graphics program, and
MacWrite, which demonstrated
WYSIWYG word processing. The Macintosh was a successful personal computer for years to come. This is particularly due to the introduction of
desktop publishing in 1985 through Apple's partnership with
Adobe. This partnership introduced the
LaserWriter printer and
Aldus PageMaker to users of the personal computer. During
Steve Jobs's hiatus from Apple, a number of different models of Macintosh, including the
Macintosh Plus and
Macintosh II, were released to a great degree of success. The entire Macintosh line of computers was IBM's major competition up until the early 1990s.
1990s In 1991, the
World Wide Web was made available for public use. The combination of powerful personal computers with high-resolution graphics and sound, with the infrastructure provided by the Internet, and the standardization of access methods of the
Web browsers, established the foundation for a significant fraction of modern life, from bus time tables through unlimited distribution of free videos through to online user-edited encyclopedias. == Types ==