IBM CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PC August 2001 IBM, Microsoft, and most of the PC industry celebrated the 20th anniversary of the PC this month , looking back on one of the key milestones of the 20th century. The original IBM PC--code-named Chess--came about as a skunkworks project in one of the company's Florida office parks after IBM declined to simply purchase Atari outright for its Atari 800 computer. IBM wasn't the first company to use the term personal computer (PC)--that honor falls to Hewlett-Packard (HP) with its 911A calculator, released in 1968. By the time the IBM edition hit in August 1981, it had plenty of competition. The best-selling PC from that era was the Commodore 64, an all-in-one unit that resembled the company's earlier consumer-oriented VIC-20, but had more in common with the business-oriented PET line. Companies such as Tandy, Atari, Texas Instruments, and Apple were fielding entries with various levels of success, and Apple even infamously welcomed IBM to the crowded field with what is now seen as a foolhardy full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal. Within a few short years, IBM's PC had launched an industry, leaving Apple and the other small players behind forever. And really, that's the legacy of the IBM PC: In a bid to undermine the company's legendary bureaucracy, the machine's creators were forced to go with off-the-shelf parts, but they also made the critical decision to open the hardware design to others. IBM kept only the BIOS, that crucial piece of software that launches the machine, a secret, and clean room engineers at several companies broke that secret, making the term "IBM PC compatible" possible. Developed in a single year, the PC exceeded IBM's expectations immediately, selling more than 3 million units in its first 5 years. It's difficult to believe now, but the PC was somewhat of a powerhouse when it arrived. In an era of 1MHz machines, the PC's 4.77MHz processor placed it well ahead of the competition, although technicians debate to this day the decision to go with a hybrid 8-/16-bit Intel 8088 chip instead of the pure 16-bit 8086. IBM offered versions with 16KB and 64KB of RAM, and one or two floppy drives. Hard disks, colour displays, mice, and other advances were still a few years down the road. Over the years, other companies have surpassed IBM in the PC market, and many people see the company's failed attempt to regain control with its proprietary PS/2 systems in the late 1980s as a low point for the industry. But IBM will also get credit for launching an industry that has literally changed the world, one that has generated trillions of dollars of wealth and millions of jobs. In fact, the IBM PC was so successful that today's machines still largely mimic the original PC's design. It's a legacy unequaled in the technology world, and one for which IBM certainly deserves a tip of the hat.

There is a bit of contention about this anniversary and rightly so: The first desktop PC I ever used was in 1972 and came with a Windows-like Graphical User Interface (GUI). It was already two years old then. So, maybe happy 31st anniversary is more appropriate: The PARC Alto

30th is OK by me, as this is the IBM PC - The industary standard all later PC's were built to. The "First" computer was way back in 1943 But this is the correct starting point for 'Home Computing' that worked. But what the hell! Were all right here.

Actually depending upon your definition an Abacus could be considered a computer. So we're celebrating the 4 thousandth birthday of the abacus. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABACUS!