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IBM PC Dead

IBM PC
KindMachine
Introduced1981
Discontinued1987
StatusDead
ManufacturerIBM
ClassPersonal computer
PlatformIntel 8088, PC bus
Sourcewww.minuszerodegrees.net ↗

The machine that defined the next forty years — an open architecture of off-the-shelf parts, cloned within a year, commoditized within five. 'PC compatible' outlived IBM's own PC division.

Created by IBM
Hosted MS-DOS Windows (classic) MINIX FreeDOS

Don Estridge's Boca Raton skunkworks shipped the 5150 (August 12, 1981) — Intel 8088, open architecture, off-the-shelf parts, choice of PC-DOS (Microsoft's licensed QDOS), CP/M-86, or UCSD p-System.

Phoenix and Compaq cloned the BIOS legally in 1982–83; 'PC compatible' became the commodity standard, and within a decade IBM lost control of its own architecture. The PC's legacy is the platform, not the box.

Sources

  1. minuszerodegrees.net/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer