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| The tower of a personal computer. |
The term personal computer or PC has three meanings:
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. The second generation micros were known as home computers, and are discussed in that section.
A personal computer is an inexpensive microcomputer, originally designed to be used by only one person at a time, and which is IBM PC compatible - (though in common usage it may sometimes refer to non-compatible machines).
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."
The first generation of microcomputers that started to appear in the 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 QuantumLink (US) or Compunet (UK).
It was the launch of the VisiCalcVisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. Indeed it was the " killer app" that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a business tool. Conceived by Dan Bricklin, refined by Bob Frankston and spreadsheetA spreadsheet is a rectangular table (or grid) of information, often financial information. It is, therefore, a kind of matrix. The word came from "spread" in its sense of a newspaper or magazine item (text and/or graphics) that covers two facing pages, e, initially for the Apple IIpersonal computers of the 1980s. As can be seen, the Apple II came with an integrated keyboard, common with early personal computers, but very uncommon today. The one pictured is shown with two official Apple floppy disk drives and a monitor. The Apple II and later for the Atari 8-bit familyAtari built a series of 8-bit home computers based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, starting in 1979. Over the next decade several versions of the same basic design would be released, but the models remained largely identical internally. History As soon as, Commodore PETThe PET P ersonal E lectronic T ransactor was a home-/ personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. Although it was no top seller outside the Canadian, US, and UK educational markets, it was Commodore's first full-featured computer, 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 wordprocessor 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.
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.