The IBM PC, Part 1: Arrival

In the early 1980s, the personal computer market was a raucous bazaar, teeming with variety. Each distinct type of personal computer—from Atari, Radio Shack, Apple, Commodore, Texas Instruments, and many more—had its own sub-culture of clubs and magazines, full of partisans ready to tout the superiority of their chosen machines. [1]

Though a substantial bloc of smaller manufactures such as North Star and Vector Graphic all supported an Altair-compatible hardware standard (8080-compatible processor and S-100 bus) and Gary Kildall’s CP/M operating system, they were far from a monopoly share. Standards in graphics, sound, and peripheral connections varied even more widely. Most microcomputers used processors compatible with Intel’s 8080 or MOS Technology’s 6502, but the BASIC programming la…