The desktop and mobile computing industry would never have been the way it is today if IBM hadn’t released the first personal PC. It happened 40 years ago – on August 12, 1981.
The first personal computer in history was the IBM 5150. The mass of the “unit” (and you can’t put it another way) was 11.34 kg, the weight of the keyboard alone was 2.7 kg. It was built on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 16-bit microprocessor and ran under the DOS operating system. The amount of RAM was 16 KB, and data were stored on 5.25-inch floppy disks or tape drives.
Even without being equipped with a video card or monitor (still monochrome), the IBM 5150 cost a lot – $ 1565. Nevertheless, the demand for it was huge: in the first year, 200,000 PCs were sold, and by 1985, sales had reached the 1 million mark. At one time, Time magazine chose the IBM 5150 “Person of the Year” and featured it on its cover.
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