History of the IBM PC: 41 Years Ago — Why It Was So Important

Forty-one years ago, the IBM PC was released.

On August 12, 1981, IBM announced its first “personal computer,” though it had previously been famous for its IBM System/370 mainframe computer. I operated one of these mainframes in a raised-floor data center in the early ’80s.

The PC was officially called the IBM Model 5150 and sported a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor. It had been in development for a year in a secret “skunkworks” lab in Boca Raton, FL, under the direction of Bill Lowe.

It cost $1,565 and was targeted at both consumers and professional users, especially students (who could afford it) and business users. In today’s dollars, it would have cost $4,455.

Back in the day, I watched someone who knew how to use a VisiCalc spreadsheet build out a pricing forecast for me on the “green screen.” It was amazing.

Did it catch on? It exceeded IBM’s expectations by over 800%! IBM was shipping 40,000 PCs a month, which was a lot then, with over half going into homes. IBM licensed the character of Charlie Chaplin‘s “The Little Tramp” for their advertising campaign.

IBM PC Operating System

Microsoft worked with IBM to produce the PC DOS operating system; a variant was later…