The IBM PC, Part 1: Arrival
This article provides a historical account of the early 1980s personal computer market, focusing on the fragmentation of hardware and software standards. It sets the stage for how the IBM PC eventually standardized the industry.
Why it matters
Understanding the history of the IBM PC is essential for grasping the origins of the modern computing ecosystem and the shift toward standardized hardware.
In the early 1980s, the personal computer market was a raucous bazaar, teeming with variety. Each distinct type of personal computer—from Atari, Radio Shack, Apple, Commodore, Texas Instruments, and many more—had its own sub-culture of clubs and magazines, full of partisans ready to tout the superiority of their chosen machines. [1]
Though a substantial bloc of smaller manufactures such as North Star and Vector Graphic all supported an Altair-compatible hardware standard (8080-compatible processor and S-100 bus) and Gary Kildall’s CP/M operating system, they were far from a monopoly share. Standards in graphics, sound, and peripheral connections varied even more widely. Most microcomputers used processors compatible with Intel’s 8080 or MOS Technology’s 6502, but the BASIC programming language was the only near-universal lingua franca, often pre-installed in read-only-memory (ROM) chips on the computer and usually supplied by Microsoft.
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