 The tower of a personal computer.  Personal computer and peripherals. From left to right: ink jet printer, an irrelevant TV, CRT monitor, broadband cable modem for the internet, flat bed scanner. The tower (CPU, hard drive, etc) can just be glimpsed at bottom right. The keyboard and mouse are wireless.  A (rather old) laptop computer. The term personal computer or PC is generally a microcomputer intended to be used by one person at a time, and suitable for general purpose tasks such as word processing, programming, or game play, usually used to run purchased or other software not written by the user. Unlike minicomputers, a personal computer is often owned by the person using it, indicating a low cost of purchase and simplicity of operation. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not necessarily interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer. A tower case featuring a modern design. ...
The tower of a personal computer (specifically a Power Mac G5). ...
Apple IIc Generally, a microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor (µP) as its CPU. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space. ...
HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ...
The first generation of microcomputers were called just that, and only sold in small numbers to those able to (build them from kits or) operate them: engineers and accomplished hobbyists ( for example, the Altair 8800). The second generation micros were known as home computers, and are discussed in that section. The MITS Altair 8800 is a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080A CPU. Sold as a kit through Popular Electronics magazine, the designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold over ten times that many in the first month. ...
The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ...
History The earliest known use of the term was in New Scientist magazine in 1964, in a series of articles called "The World in 1984". In "The Banishment of Paper Work," Arthur L. Samuel of IBM's Watson Research Center writes, "While it will be entirely feasible to obtain an education at home, via one's own personal computer, human nature will not have changed." New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ...
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ...
The first computers that can be called 'personal' were the first non-mainframe computers, the LINC and the PDP-8. By today's standards they were big (about the size of a refrigerator), expensive (around $50,000 US), and had small magnetic core memories (about 4096 12-bit words for the LINC). Lincoln Financial Field, familiarly known as The Linc, is the home stadium of the National Football Leagues Philadelphia Eagles. ...
The PDP-8 was the first successful commercial minicomputer, produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 1960s. ...
However, they were small enough and cheap enough for individual laboratories and research projects to use, freeing them from the batch processing and bureaucracy of the typical industrial or university computing center. In addition, they were moderately interactive and soon had their own operating systems. Eventually, this category became known as the mini-computer, usually with time-sharing and program development facilities. Eventually, the mini-computer grew up to encompass the VAX and larger mini-computers from Data General, Prime, and others. Deployment of mini-computer systems was a model for how personal computers would be used, but few of the mini-computer makers managed to profit from it. Batch processing is the sequential execution of a series of programs (jobs) on a computer. ...
In sociological theories, bureaucracy is an organizational structure characterized by regularized procedure, division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships. ...
In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ...
HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ...
Alternate uses: see Timesharing Time-sharing is an approach to interactive computing in which a single computer is used to provide apparently simultaneous interactive general-purpose computing to multiple users by sharing processor time. ...
VAX is a 32-bit computing architecture that supports an orthogonal instruction set (machine language) and virtual addressing (i. ...
Data General was a pioneering firm in the minicomputer world, known primarily for their Nova 16-bit minicomputer which gained a wide following and was used in many forms for over a decade. ...
Prime can refer to: Prime element Prime ideal Prime lens Prime number Prime rate Prime Television, a television network in Australia Prime, a cable channel in Canada Prime, the ′ mark Prime, a ribose structure Prime computer Prime, a liturgical office (service or ceremony) Prime, a comics character the point at...
Development of the single-chip microprocessor changed everything, since it dropped the cost of purchase of a computer by an order of magnitude or more. Microprocessors, including an Intel 80486DX2 and an Intel 80386 A microprocessor (abbreviated as µP or uP) is an electronic computer central processing unit (CPU) made from miniaturized transistors and other circuit elements on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) (aka microchip or just chip). ...
The first generation of microcomputers that started to appear in the mid 1970s (see home computers) were less powerful and in some ways less versatile than business computers of the day (but in other ways more versatile, in terms of built-in sound and graphics capabilities), and were generally used by computer enthusiasts for learning to program, for running simple office/productivity applications, for electronics interfacing, and/or games, as well as for accessing BBS's, general online services such as CompuServe, The Source, or Genie, or platform-specific services such as Quantum Link (US) or Compunet (UK). The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ...
Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ...
A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...
A bulletin board system or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. ...
CompuServe was a major online service during the 1980s and 1990s before it was sidelined by the rise of GUI-based services such as America Online. ...
The Source was the name of an early on-line service. ...
Quantum Link main menu Quantum Link (or Q-Link) was a nationwide online service for Commodore 64 and 128 personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985 to November 1, 1994. ...
It was the launch of the VisiCalc spreadsheet, initially for the Apple II and later for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore PET, and IBM PC that became the "killer app" that turned the microcomputer into a business tool. Later, Lotus 1-2-3, a combined spreadsheet (partly based on VisiCalc), presentation graphics, and simple database application, became the PCs own killer app. Good word processor programs also appeared for many home computers. The low cost of personal computers led to great popularity in the home and business markets during the 1980s. In 1982, Time magazine named the personal computer its Man of the Year. VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. ...
A spreadsheet is a rectangular table (or grid) of information, often financial information. ...
The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
Atari built a series of 8-bit home computers based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, starting in 1979. ...
The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. ...
IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ...
A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful that people will buy a particular computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program. ...
Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (now part of IBM). ...
A word processor (also more formally known as a document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of viewable or printed material. ...
(Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
Person of the Year is an annual issue of U.S. newsmagazine TIME that features a profile ostensibly on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year. ...
During the 1990s, the power of personal computers increased radically, blurring the formerly sharp distinction between personal computers and multi-user computers such as mainframes. Today higher-end computers often distinguish themselves from personal computers by greater reliability or greater ability to multitask, rather than by straight CPU power. Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ...
The central processing unit (CPU) is the part of a computer that interprets and carries out the instructions contained in the software. ...
Architecture Personal computers can be categorized by size and portability: Many mass-market IBM PC compatible and Apple Macintosh personal computers are standardized to the point that purchased software is expected to run with little or no customization for the particular computer. Often memory, and peripherals such as video boards and disk storage are easily upgradable, even by the end user, and even the motherboard can in some cases be changed to upgrade the power of the central processor. Such upgradeability is not indefinite since major changes in the personal computer industry occur every three to five years; a machine that was considered top-of-the-line say five or six years ago may be impractical to upgrade due to changes in processors, memory, and peripherals. This upgrade cycle is in part linked to new releases of the primary mass-market operating system, which tends to drive the accquisition of new hardware and tends to obsolete previously serviceable hardware (see planned obsolescence). The Mac mini, a small fully featured desktop computer weighing only 2. ...
A Portable computer is a computer that is designed to be moved from one place to another (in other words, it is a computer that is portable). ...
Laptop with touchpad. ...
Toshiba Portege 3500 tablet PC, in tablet configuration. ...
Palm IIIxe PDA Personal digital assistants (PDAs or palmtops) are handheld devices that were originally designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. ...
A wearable computer is a small portable computer that is designed to be worn on the body during use. ...
One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ...
Macintosh, also known as Mac, is a family of personal computers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. ...
Sony Playstation motherboard A motherboard, also known as main board, logic board or system board, is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system, such as a computer. ...
Planned obsolescence (also built-in obsolescence (UK)) is the conscious decision on the part of an agency to produce a consumer product that will become obsolete in a defined time frame. ...
The hardware capabilities of personal computers can sometimes be extended by the addition of expansion cards. The standard expansion bays for personal computers as of 2005 are ISA, PCI and AGP. A PC may also be upgraded by the addition of extra drives (DVD, CD-ROM, flash drive, Hard drive, etc). Standard storage device interfaces are ATA, Serial ATA or SCSI in 2005. Hardware comprises all of the physical parts of a computer, as distinguished from the data it contains or operates on, and the software that provides instructions for the hardware to accomplish tasks. ...
Fitting an expansion card into a motherboard An expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard to add additional functionality to a computer system. ...
Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) is a bus standard for IBM compatibles introduced in 1984 that extends the XT bus architecture to 16 bits. ...
For other meanings of PCI, see PCI (disambiguation). ...
The Accelerated Graphics Port (also called Advanced Graphics Port) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a single device (generally a graphics card) to a computers motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. ...
DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for storing data, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...
The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ...
A USB keydrive, shown with a US quarter coin for scale. ...
Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ...
ATA cables: 40 wire ribbon cable top, 80 wire ribbon cable bottom Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA), is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers. ...
A SATA power connector. ...
SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface, and is a standard interface for transferring data between devices on a computer bus. ...
Motherboard - Main article: PC motherboard
The motherboard is the primary circuit board for a computer. Most other computer components plug directly into the motherboard to allow them to exchange information. Motherboards usually hold a chipset, BIOS, CMOS, parallel port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports and expansion bays. Sometimes a secondary daughter board is plugged into the motherboard to provide more expansion bays and to cut down on its size. The ABIT KT7, an ATX format motherboard A motherboard is a printed circuit board used in a personal computer. ...
Close-up photo of one side of a motherboard PCB, showing conductive traces, vias and solder points for through-hole components on the opposite side. ...
Chipset refers to a group of integrated circuits (chips) that are designed to work together, and are usually marketed as a single product. ...
In computing, the Basic Input-Output System or BIOS is computer interface code that locates and loads the operating system into RAM. It provides low-level communication, operation and configuration to the hardware of a system, which at a minimum drives the keyboard and provides primitive output to a display. ...
CMOS (pronounced see-moss) is the name used for a major class of integrated circuits. ...
In computing, a parallel port is an interface from a computer system where data is transferred in or out in parallel, that is, on more than one wire. ...
This article is about the Personal System/2 computer line made by IBM. There is another article on the PlayStation 2 made by Sony. ...
A daughterboard or daughtercard is a circuit board meant to be an extension or daughter of a motherboard (or mainboard), or occasionally another card. ...
Central processing unit - Main article: central processing unit
The Central processing unit or CPU is the part of the computer that performs most of the calculations that make programs or operating systems run. The CPU plugs directly into the motherboard by one of many different types of sockets. Most IBM PC compatible computers use an x86-compatible processor made by Intel, AMD, VIA Technologies or Transmeta. The central processing unit (CPU) is the part of a computer that interprets and carries out the instructions contained in the software. ...
A computer program (often simply called a program) is an example of computer software that prescribes the actions (computations) that are to be carried out by a computer. ...
In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ...
One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ...
The following article is about the multinational corporation; intel is also an abbreviation for intelligence, used in reference to military intelligence and espionage. ...
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ...
VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics group. ...
Transmeta (NASDAQ: TMTA) was founded in 1995 by Dave Ditzel as a US-based corporation that designed VLIW code morphing microprocessors. ...
RAM - memory - Main article: random access memory
The Random Access Memory of the computer is the "short-term-memory" of the PC, It is much faster than the mass storage devices like Harddisk or CD-ROM, but its contents are lost when the Power is turned off. Different types of RAM. From top to bottom: DIP, SIPP, SIMM 30 pin, SIMM 72 pin, DIMM, RIMM RAM redirects here. ...
Hard disk drive - Main article: hard disk
Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ...
PSU - power supply unit - Main article: power supply
Essential. Provides steady DC supply from a domestic AC source. Many problems with Old PCs can be traced to a faulty or overheating PSU. A power supply unit (sometimes abbreviated power supply or PSU) is a device that supplies electrical power to a device or group of devices. ...
Non-IBM compatible personal computers Though many personal computers are IBM PC compatible using either Microsoft Windows or open-source forms of UNIX such as Linux, a number of other personal computer types are still popular. The leading alternative is Apple Computer's Power Macintosh platform, based on the PowerPC microprocessor. One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ...
UNIX® (or Unix) is a portable, multi-task and multi-user computer operating system originally developed by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...
This article is about Linux-based operating systems, GNU/Linux, and related topics. ...
Power Macintosh, or Power Mac, is the name of a line of Apple Macintosh personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors. ...
PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance, known as AIM. The PowerPC was the CPU portion of the overall AIM platform, and is the only part to exist to date. ...
Microprocessors, including an Intel 80486DX2 and an Intel 80386 A microprocessor (abbreviated as µP or uP) is an electronic computer central processing unit (CPU) made from miniaturized transistors and other circuit elements on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) (aka microchip or just chip). ...
Further PC and PW (Personal Workstation) types through time:
The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltds first general purpose home computer based on their own ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options. ...
The Risc PC (codenamed Medusa) was Acorn Computers Ltds next generation RISC OS/Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched in 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. ...
For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ...
The Atari ST was a home/personal computer system released by Atari in 1985. ...
Screenshot of a BeOS system running several multimedia applications simultaneously; a CPU meter shows load spread across two processors as well as a sound mix is running with each object representing a audio track. ...
The BeBox was a short-lived dual processor PC, offered by Be, Incorporated to run their own operating system, BeOS. After initial prototypes with two AT&T Hobbit processors and three DSPs, the machines were fitted with two PowerPC 603e processors running at 66MHz. ...
Amiga is the name of a range of home/ personal computers primarily using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982, initially as a game machine. ...
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, an electronics company who was a major player in the 1980s home computer field. ...
The present article is about the Pegasos computer platform. ...
The initials NEC may stand for: NEC Corporation (Nippon Electric Co. ...
Next can refer to: what comes after this one — see Next a 1977 album named Next by Journey. ...
Sun Microsystems Logo Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) is a Silicon Valley-based computer, semiconductor and software manufacturer. ...
Current Silicon Graphics logo. ...
An SGI Indigo The SGI Indigo was a line of computer workstations manufactured by SGI beginning in 1990. ...
See also The Xerox Star, officially known as the 8010, was a revolutionary computer workstation released as a commercial product in 1981. ...
The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
Lisa could mean: The Apple Lisa a revolutionary personal computer designed at Apple Computer during the early 1980s. ...
Macintosh, also known as Mac, is a family of personal computers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. ...
The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ...
A tower case featuring a modern design. ...
Desknotes are crosses between desktop computers and notebook computers, building on the long tradition of niche market computers in a keyboard by combining a desktop CPU with a notebook-style case and screen to form an easily transportable two piece system (base/display combined and power brick) instead of three...
The history of computing hardware (continued from history of computing hardware) picks up with the development of the integrated circuit. ...
Liquid crystal display television is, as indicated by its name, a television using LCD technology (generally TFT), as opposed to cathode ray or plasma for its visual output. ...
Apple IIc Generally, a microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor (µP) as its CPU. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space. ...
HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ...
Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ...
A supercomputer is a device for turning compute-bound problems into I/O-bound problems. ...
This article is about computer servers. ...
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