First Versions: IBM (Personal Computer)

IBM logo 1972
by Paul Rand

Name: "IBM PC 5150"

Categories: Electronics, Home - Office - School

Subcategory: Computer

Developer: William C. Lowe

Producer: IBM Corporation (founder: Charles R. Flint)

William Cleland Lowe
Easton, Jan. 15, 1941
Lake Forest, Oct. 19, 2013,
the engineer known as
the father of the IBM PC

Production start: August 12, 1981 - Boca Raton, Florida, USA

Discontinued: April 2, 1987

First price: 1,565 USD

Features: Operating system IBM BASIC / PC DOS 1.0 - CP/M-86 - UCSD p-System. - CPU Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz. - Memory 16 kB ~ 256 kB. - Motherboard with five 8-bit Industry Standard Architecture slots, and two DIN connectors for keyboard and cassette interface. - Color Graphics Adapter. - Sound 1-channel PWM. - Floppy disk or cassette system.
Options included: a printer that could print in two directions at 80 characters per second in 12 different character styles, and also check itself for malfunctions and provide an out-of-paper signal; a color/graphics monitor with 16 foreground and background colors and 256 characters for text applications; one or two internal floppy drives were optional.
Application software: "VisiCalc" (Personal Software, Inc.), "General Ledger" / "Accounts Receivable" / "Accounts Payable" (Peachtree Software, Inc.), "EasyWriter" (Information Unlimited Software, Inc.), "Microsoft Adventure" (Microsoft Corporation).

Interesting facts: IBM PC 5150 was introduced only a year after corporate executives gave the go-ahead to Bill Lowe, the lab director in the company's Boca Raton, Fla., facilities. He set up a task force that developed the proposal for the first IBM PC. During a meeting with top executives in New York, Lowe claimed his group could develop a small, new computer within a year. Lowe picked a group of 12 strategists who worked around the clock to hammer out a plan for hardware, software, manufacturing setup and sales strategy. It was so well-conceived that the basic strategy remained unaltered throughout the product cycle. IBM PC 5150 was publicly announced on August 12, 1981 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Slogan: «The IBM Personal Computer and me»

Property: IBM Corporation

Producer website: http://www.ibm.com