Il pc finally crosses the threshold of middle age and performs 40 years. Actually, what is celebrated today is a commercial birthday: the first personal computer in history, in fact, was presented on August 12, 1981 and debuted in stores on September XNUMX of the same year. He was called 5150 and was produced byIBM for what is now a geological era in the world of technology: five and a half years, until April 1987.
To be picky, the 5150 was not literally the first pc ever assembled, but it sure was the first to succeed. In just one year, 200 were sold, a number that seems ridiculous today, but which was then sidereal, considering that the contemporary Sinclair ZX80, although costing less, did not exceed 12 in 70 months.
Basically, the 5150 hardware included thecentral processing unit and qwerty keyboard to 83 keys. The mouse had not yet been invented, while the monitor was sold separately to keep the price low (consumers were free to connect any display or a television to the PC). Those who wanted to buy the complete IBM kit could choose between two monitor models: the 5151 (in that monochromatic green that is so Eighties-like) and the 5153 (in colour).
To get an idea of how different the quantities with which people worked forty years ago were, just think that the central unit of the 5150 could accommodate on the motherboard a memory of just 64 kB (but a 16 kB version was also marketed). Nerds of the time, however, could install three expansion cards of 64 kB each, thus increasing the primary memory to 256 kB. And that was all.
Small detail: as standard, no operating system was installed on the 5150. To make the PC usable, IBM offered three options, namely PC DOS, CP/M-86, and the UCSD p-System. The first of the three is still in the hearts of many as another piece of history.
