On the 12th of August 1981 the first ever personal computer - the IBM 5150 - was announced. It became one of the most important releases in the world of technology, ever.
With a fraction of the power of today’s machines, the 5150 stood proud with an Intel 8088 processor running at an almighty 4.77MhZ, 16kB (max 640kB) of memory and loaded with IBM Basic/MS DOS 1.0. Despite not coining the common acronym “PC”, the 5150 defined it as being the standard which complied with IBM’s specifications.
IBM created the 5150 with an “open architecture” which meant other manufacturers could create machines, after buying a licence for the BIOS from IBM. Other manufacturers weren’t content with paying IBM, so circumvented this licence charge by reverse engineering the BIOS.
The BBC has produced an article about the 5150, the last 25 years of IBM computing and what the future holds for the IBM PC.
thanks for the link bob3160…like a blast from the past 8)
wish i could remember all the relic computers i’ve had over the years and just think what we are using now will be in the dinosaur era before we know it
Many of us here remember those days, including me since I am just 1 year younger than you. But, there are also many younger people here who have little idea how computers were back then. I still have a few of my older computers which were operational last time I used them … many moons ago now. Two of those I have made it in the list of that link you posted … C64 & Amiga 1000. I also have an Amiga500.
CharleyO,got any 5 1/4 SS/DD blank elephant disks i can have :
had one of the amiga 1000 also including a atari 400,atari 800,atari 520st with all the accessories,tape drives and etc.
commodre vic,64 and probably others i can’t remember…those were the days
Sorry but I have no blank 5-1/4 disk of any brand. What few I have all have programs or games on them.
Some time last year, I came across a site while doing an Amiga search that advertised having some of those but now I do not remember the name of the site. Perhaps if you trying doing a similar search?
Sorry but I have no blank 5-1/4 disk of any brand. What few I have all have programs or games on them.
+quote from CharleyO’s above post+
CharleyO…Can’t find the slot on my laptop where the disks go in…is that an add-on extra???
-what would i do with them nowdays anyways-a distance throwing contest,etc.-
had some great stuff on them when i used them back in “Those Good Days” :o
Hey Mac…when i was in elementary school…computers at home or school didn’t even exist YET
Paper and Pencil and our own built-in CPU(our brain)that’s what we had :o
What the hell is Garfield eating??
There’s something sad and nostalgic about realizing that it was the whole 25 years ago when IBM PC first launched - at least for me. It seems that the good old days were just yesterday when I got my very first computer and spent sleepless nights playing computer games in front of monochrome monitor with huge floppy disks. Those boxy strange looking machines became our friends and it’s hard to imagine our life without them any more. Ironically, IBM is not even in the PC business any longer - they sold its PC division to Chinese company Lenovo in 2004.
