Beige Against the Machine: Hey, hey, 16K, it's the IBM PC's 40th birthday
(2021/08/12)
- Reference: 1628793366
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/12/ibm_pc_40/
- Source link:
It is 40 years today since the IBM Model 5150 was unleashed upon the world, creating a tsunami of beige that washed over offices everywhere.
IBM was famously late to the game when the Model 5150 (or IBM PC) put in an appearance. The likes of Commodore and Apple pretty much dominated the microcomputer world as the 1970s came to a close and the 1980s began. Big Blue, on the other hand, was better known for its sober, business-orientated products and its eyewatering price tags.
However, as its customers began eying Apple products, IBM lumbered toward the market, creating a working group that could dispense with the traditional epic lead-times of Big Blue and take a more agile approach. A choice made was to use off-the-shelf hardware and software and adopt an open architecture. A significant choice, as things turned out.
[1]
Intel's 8088 was selected over the competition (including IBM's own RISC processor) and famously, Microsoft was tapped to provide [2]PC DOS as well as BASIC that was included in the ROM. So this marks the 40th anniversary of PC DOS, aka MS-DOS, too. You can find Microsoft's old MS-DOS source code [3]here .
[4]
[5]
The basic price for the 5150 was $1,565, with a fully loaded system rising to more than $3,000. Users could enjoy high resolution monochrome text via the MDA card or some low resolution graphics (and vaguely nauseating colours) through a CGA card (which could be installed simultaneously.)
[6]RIP Bill Lowe: Father of the IBM PC no longer reading drive C
[7]Lotus 1-2-3 turns 30: Mitch Kapor on the Google before Google
[8]Rise of the machines, south of Milton Keynes
[9]Liberator: the untold story of the first British laptop part 1
RAM landed in 16 or 64kB flavours and could be upgraded to 256kB while the Intel 8088 CPU chugged along at 4.77 MHz.
Storage came courtesy of up to two 5.25" floppy disks, and the ability to attach a cassette recorder – an option swiftly stripped from later models. There was no hard disk, and adding one presented a problem for users with deep enough pockets: the motherboard and software didn't support it and the power supply was a bit weedy. IBM would resolve this as the PC evolved.
Importantly, the motherboard also included slots for expansion, which eventually became known as the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus as the IBM PC clone sector exploded.
[10]
IBM's approach resulted in an immense market for expansion cards and third party software. And, distressingly for the beancounters at Big Blue, a huge number of imitators. After all, if one could reverse engineer the BIOS then building one's own PC was simply a case of picking the right off-the-shelf parts. Just like IBM.
Not that IBM was too bothered at first – after all, the Model 5150 sold like hotcakes, far surpassing the company's expectations. It was rather good value for money considering the quality of components such as its keyboard and 80 column capabilities and, of course, its software and hardware architecture.
The 5150 was eventually discontinued in 1987, although we wouldn't be surprised to find one or two still lurking in production environments.
[11]
IBM's travails with the monster it created are well documented. However, take a moment today to raise a glass to IBM's Boca Raton, Florida team and what would come to be known simply as the "PC".
Many of us owe a career to the arrival of the Model 5150. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2011/08/12/ibm_pc_30_anniversary/?page=3
[3] https://github.com/microsoft/ms-dos
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/29/bill_lowe_obit/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/26/mitch_kapor_lotus_123_anniversary/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2013/06/29/geeks_guide_tnmoc/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2012/11/12/the_secret_history_of_liberator_the_first_british_laptop_part_one/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
IBM was famously late to the game when the Model 5150 (or IBM PC) put in an appearance. The likes of Commodore and Apple pretty much dominated the microcomputer world as the 1970s came to a close and the 1980s began. Big Blue, on the other hand, was better known for its sober, business-orientated products and its eyewatering price tags.
However, as its customers began eying Apple products, IBM lumbered toward the market, creating a working group that could dispense with the traditional epic lead-times of Big Blue and take a more agile approach. A choice made was to use off-the-shelf hardware and software and adopt an open architecture. A significant choice, as things turned out.
[1]
Intel's 8088 was selected over the competition (including IBM's own RISC processor) and famously, Microsoft was tapped to provide [2]PC DOS as well as BASIC that was included in the ROM. So this marks the 40th anniversary of PC DOS, aka MS-DOS, too. You can find Microsoft's old MS-DOS source code [3]here .
[4]
[5]
The basic price for the 5150 was $1,565, with a fully loaded system rising to more than $3,000. Users could enjoy high resolution monochrome text via the MDA card or some low resolution graphics (and vaguely nauseating colours) through a CGA card (which could be installed simultaneously.)
[6]RIP Bill Lowe: Father of the IBM PC no longer reading drive C
[7]Lotus 1-2-3 turns 30: Mitch Kapor on the Google before Google
[8]Rise of the machines, south of Milton Keynes
[9]Liberator: the untold story of the first British laptop part 1
RAM landed in 16 or 64kB flavours and could be upgraded to 256kB while the Intel 8088 CPU chugged along at 4.77 MHz.
Storage came courtesy of up to two 5.25" floppy disks, and the ability to attach a cassette recorder – an option swiftly stripped from later models. There was no hard disk, and adding one presented a problem for users with deep enough pockets: the motherboard and software didn't support it and the power supply was a bit weedy. IBM would resolve this as the PC evolved.
Importantly, the motherboard also included slots for expansion, which eventually became known as the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus as the IBM PC clone sector exploded.
[10]
IBM's approach resulted in an immense market for expansion cards and third party software. And, distressingly for the beancounters at Big Blue, a huge number of imitators. After all, if one could reverse engineer the BIOS then building one's own PC was simply a case of picking the right off-the-shelf parts. Just like IBM.
Not that IBM was too bothered at first – after all, the Model 5150 sold like hotcakes, far surpassing the company's expectations. It was rather good value for money considering the quality of components such as its keyboard and 80 column capabilities and, of course, its software and hardware architecture.
The 5150 was eventually discontinued in 1987, although we wouldn't be surprised to find one or two still lurking in production environments.
[11]
IBM's travails with the monster it created are well documented. However, take a moment today to raise a glass to IBM's Boca Raton, Florida team and what would come to be known simply as the "PC".
Many of us owe a career to the arrival of the Model 5150. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2011/08/12/ibm_pc_30_anniversary/?page=3
[3] https://github.com/microsoft/ms-dos
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/29/bill_lowe_obit/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/26/mitch_kapor_lotus_123_anniversary/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2013/06/29/geeks_guide_tnmoc/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2012/11/12/the_secret_history_of_liberator_the_first_british_laptop_part_one/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRWaGjiGhmPLFCf@37RT-AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Ah, for the good old days
HildyJ
When floppy disks flopped.
Not mentioned is a significant feature of the IBM PC that continues to this day. Your standard hard drive is labeled C: because A: and B: are still reserved for the floppy drives.
Anonymous Coward
“Sold like hotcakes” I wonder how many of the original ones ended up sitting completely idle on the top management’s desks*. Like the one in Jr. Eving’s office in Dallas the series. It was sad to see that piece of equipment sitting lonely and untouched.
*) Or rather, how many didn’t…
"What a piece of crap"
Anonymous Coward
I remember running a big CompuPro S-100 installation networked with Arcnet. We even had 40MB hard drives!
Boy, did we look down our noses at the new IBM offering.
> being a typical clueless PHB, and not wanting to spend money on the latest and greatest
Man, that's a shock. I don't think I've EVER seen a PHB that didn't want the latest greatest newest shiniest sitting on his desk... doing nothing.
I remember some PHBs having Silicon Graphics boxes for absolutely no reason other than being expensive and fancy desk jewelry.
PC
The place where I worked from the mid-1980s until the early 1990s was Burroughs/Unisys house. The PHB decided sometime around 1989-ish when 286s were already being superseded by 386s that we needed to get into this PC malarkey thing. So, being a typical clueless PHB, and not wanting to spend money on the latest and greatest, he happened to discover that there was an auction going on somewhere not too far away and that it had some PCs in the list. Despite us programmers telling him that he needed to get something that was at least a 286 he proudly came back a couple of days later carrying what I think may have been an IBM PC or XT and was rather put out when he told him it was too old for us to use, especially as he'd paid somewhat over the odds for the thing (I think we laughed when he told us what it had cost).
I suppose nowadays it would be cleaned up, retrobrighted and displayed in one of the many retro museums around for people to gawk at!