Difference between revisions of "IBM 5150"

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The IBM 5150 was IBM's entry into the personal computer marketplace, the IBM PC. The original configuration had a motherboard designed for up to 64KB of RAM, and a tape drive, but could be expanded to include a diskette drive, and a hard disk. At the beginning they were advertised for around $1,600, for a unit with just 16KB of RAM and a keyboard[http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibm_pc.shtml]. In practice you would add a at least a video adapter, probably some RAM, and a floppy disk drive. Then the price would be quite different. Back then, both types of disk drives were of the 5 1/4" full height form factor.  IBM made the PC an open standard, publishing not only schematics, but also including a BIOS listing in the technical reference.  When people wished to build clones of the IBM PC, IBM would license them for a 5% royalty fee, which not only made the PC a popular platform to clone, but also with the available schematics, allowed for everyone to be pin compatible with the ISA slots, creating a thriving hardware expansion business.
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The IBM 5150 was IBM's entry into the personal computer marketplace, the IBM PC. It was introduced in stores on 1981-08-12. The original configuration had a motherboard designed for up to 64KB of RAM, and a tape drive, but could be expanded to include a diskette drive, and a hard disk. At the beginning they were advertised for around $1,600 (retail would be around $1,000 though[http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2013-July/106735.html]), for a unit with just 16KB of RAM and a keyboard[http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibm_pc.shtml]. In practice you would add a at least a video adapter, probably some RAM, and a floppy disk drive. Then the price would be quite different. Back then, both types of disk drives were of the 5 1/4" full height form factor.  IBM made the PC an open standard, publishing not only schematics, but also including a BIOS listing in the technical reference.  When people wished to build clones of the IBM PC, IBM would license them for a 5% royalty fee, which not only made the PC a popular platform to clone, but also with the available schematics, allowed for everyone to be pin compatible with the ISA slots, creating a thriving hardware expansion business.
  
 
The IBM PC included Microsoft BASIC in ROM, which allowed the PC to function like many of the computers of the time with a simple ROM BASIC.  With the addition of a disk drive, OS options included [[CP/M]] and [[MS-DOS]] at the time of sale.
 
The IBM PC included Microsoft BASIC in ROM, which allowed the PC to function like many of the computers of the time with a simple ROM BASIC.  With the addition of a disk drive, OS options included [[CP/M]] and [[MS-DOS]] at the time of sale.

Revision as of 10:12, 1 August 2013


IBM 5150/IBM PC
IBM 5150.jpg
The IBM PC
Manufacturer: IBM
Year Introduced: 1981
Word Size: 16 bit


The IBM 5150 was IBM's entry into the personal computer marketplace, the IBM PC. It was introduced in stores on 1981-08-12. The original configuration had a motherboard designed for up to 64KB of RAM, and a tape drive, but could be expanded to include a diskette drive, and a hard disk. At the beginning they were advertised for around $1,600 (retail would be around $1,000 though[1]), for a unit with just 16KB of RAM and a keyboard[2]. In practice you would add a at least a video adapter, probably some RAM, and a floppy disk drive. Then the price would be quite different. Back then, both types of disk drives were of the 5 1/4" full height form factor. IBM made the PC an open standard, publishing not only schematics, but also including a BIOS listing in the technical reference. When people wished to build clones of the IBM PC, IBM would license them for a 5% royalty fee, which not only made the PC a popular platform to clone, but also with the available schematics, allowed for everyone to be pin compatible with the ISA slots, creating a thriving hardware expansion business.

The IBM PC included Microsoft BASIC in ROM, which allowed the PC to function like many of the computers of the time with a simple ROM BASIC. With the addition of a disk drive, OS options included CP/M and MS-DOS at the time of sale.

The IBM PC, also established the 8 bit expansion slot, or ISA bus standard.

IBM PC Motherboard

The PC was replaced by the wildly popular IBM XT.