Moonsound is the name of a sound card released for the MSX home-computer system at the Tilburg Computer Fair in 1995. It was designed by electronic engineer Henrik Gilvad and produced by Sunrise Swiss on a semi-hobby basis.
93-703: It arrived after the US branch of Microsoft abandoned the MSX system, instead focusing on the IBM PC . The name originates from the Moonblaster software that was written for people to use the hardware plug-in synthesizer. Based on the Yamaha YMF278 (OPL4) sound chip , it is capable of 18 channels of FM synthesis as well as 24 channels of 12 and 16 bit sample-based synthesis . A 2 MB instrument ROM containing multisampled instruments
186-481: A "wave" of inexpensive clones from American and Asian companies caused prices to decline; by the end of 1986, the equivalent to a $ 1,600 real IBM PC with 256K RAM and two disk drives cost as little as $ 600 , lower than the price of the Apple IIc . Consumers began purchasing DOS computers for the home in large numbers; Tandy estimated that half of its 1000 sales went to homes, the new Leading Edge Model D comprised 1% of
279-596: A company that had been "struggling openly in the blood-soaked arena of personal computers". The 1000 was compatible with the PC but not compatible with its own Tandy 2000 MS-DOS computer. IBM's mainframe rivals, the BUNCH , introduced their own compatibles, and when Hewlett-Packard introduced the Vectra InfoWorld stated that the company was "responding to demands from its customers for full IBM PC compatibility". I believe that
372-420: A computer through retail channels rather than directly to customers. Because IBM did not have retail experience, they partnered with the retail chains ComputerLand and Sears , who provided important knowledge of the marketplace and became the main outlets for the PC. More than 190 ComputerLand stores already existed, while Sears was in the process of creating a handful of in-store computer centers for sale of
465-442: A dedicated power supply and included a hard drive. Although official hard drive support did not exist, the third party market did provide early hard drives that connected to the floppy disk controller , but required a patched version of PC DOS to support the larger disk sizes. The only option for human interface provided in the base PC was the built-in keyboard port, meant to connect to the included Model F keyboard. The Model F
558-573: A hard drive, the motherboard did not support BIOS expansion ROMs which was needed to support a hard drive controller, and both PC DOS and the BIOS had no support for hard disks. After the XT was released, IBM altered the design of the 5150 to add most of these capabilities, except for the upgraded power supply. At this point adding a hard drive was possible, but required the purchase of the IBM 5161 Expansion Unit, which contained
651-470: A host of smaller firms seem to indicate that the 8088/MS-DOS/IBM-compatible bandwagon is becoming much more like a speeding freight train. The magazine expressed concern that "IBM's burgeoning influence in the PC community is stifling innovation because so many other companies are mimicking Big Blue". Admitting that "it's what our dealers asked for", Kaypro also introduced the company's first IBM compatible that year. Tandy—which had once had as much as 60% of
744-564: A library of common functions that all software can use for many purposes, such as video output, keyboard input, disk access, interrupt handling, testing memory, and other functions. IBM shipped three versions of the BIOS throughout the PC's lifespan. While most home computers had built-in video output hardware, IBM took the unusual approach of offering two different graphics options, the MDA and CGA cards. The former provided high-resolution monochrome text, but could not display anything except text, while
837-496: A machine that isn't PC compatible and survive is IBM". By 1985, the shortage of IBM PCs had ended, causing financial difficulties for many vendors of compatibles; nonetheless, Harris said, "The only ones that have done worse than the compatibles are the noncompatibles". The PC standard was similarly dominant in Europe, with Honeywell Bull , Olivetti , and Ericsson selling compatibles and software companies focusing on PC products. By
930-638: A market existed for personal computers with a similar selection of software to the IBM PC, but with better hardware. While Microsoft used a sophisticated installer with its DOS programs like Multiplan that provided device drivers for many non IBM PC-compatible computers, most other software vendors did not. Columbia University discussed the difficulty of having Kermit support many different clones and MS-DOS computers. Peter Norton , who earlier had encouraged vendors to write software that ran on many different computers, by early 1985 admitted—after experiencing
1023-401: A maximum of 64 KB onboard, and the more common 64 KB revision to a maximum of 256 KB on the motherboard. RAM cards could upgrade either variant further, for a total of 640 KB conventional memory , and possibly several megabytes of expanded memory beyond that, though on PC/XT-class machines, the latter was a very expensive third-party hardware option only available later in
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#17328590739901116-635: A mouse.) Connectivity to other computers and peripherals was initially provided through serial and parallel ports. IBM provided a serial card based on an 8250 UART . The BIOS supports up to two serial ports. IBM provided two different options for connecting Centronics-compatible parallel printers. One was the IBM Printer Adapter, and the other was integrated into the MDA as the IBM Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter. The expansion capability of
1209-460: A personal computer, possibly a miniaturized version of the IBM System/370 , and Matsushita acknowledged publicly that it had discussed with IBM the possibility of manufacturing a personal computer in partnership, although this project was abandoned. The public responded to these rumors with skepticism, owing to IBM's tendency towards slow-moving, bureaucratic business practices tailored towards
1302-494: A policy of strict secrecy, with all other IBM divisions kept in the dark about the project. Several CPUs were considered, including the Texas Instruments TMS9900 , Motorola 68000 and Intel 8088 . The 68000 was considered the best choice, but was not production-ready like the others. The IBM 801 RISC processor was also considered, since it was considerably more powerful than the other options, but rejected due to
1395-657: A rapidly changing market. The idea of acquiring Atari was considered but rejected in favor of a proposal by Lowe that by forming an independent internal working group and abandoning all traditional IBM methods, a design could be delivered within a year and a prototype within 30 days. The prototype worked poorly but was presented with a detailed business plan which proposed that the new computer have an open architecture , use non-proprietary components and software, and be sold through retail stores, all contrary to IBM practice. It also estimated sales of 220,000 computers over three years, more than IBM's entire installed base . This swayed
1488-581: A separate monochrome monitor for text menus. Third parties went on to provide an enormous variety of aftermarket graphics adapters, such as the Hercules Graphics Card . The software and hardware of the PC, at release, was designed around a single 8-bit adaptation of the ASCII character set, now known as code page 437 . The two bays in the front of the machine could be populated with one or two 5.25″ floppy disk drives, storing 160 KB per disk side for
1581-515: A significant share of the educational market, while longtime leader Apple lost share. At the January 1987 Consumer Electronics Show , both Commodore and Atari announced their own clones. By 1987 the PC industry was growing so quickly that the formerly business-only platform had become the largest and most important market for computer game companies, outselling games for the Apple II or Commodore 64. With
1674-455: A total of 320 KB of storage on one disk. The floppy drives require a controller card inserted in an expansion slot, and connect with a single ribbon cable with two edge connectors. The IBM floppy controller card provides an external 37-pin D-sub connector for attachment of an external disk drive, although IBM did not offer one for purchase until 1986. As was common for home computers of the era,
1767-403: A year. By 1984, IBM's revenue from the PC market was $ 4 billion, more than twice that of Apple. A 1983 study of corporate customers found that two thirds of large customers standardizing on one computer chose the PC, while only 9% chose Apple. A 1985 Fortune survey found that 56% of American companies with personal computers used PCs while 16% used Apple. Almost as soon as the PC reached
1860-609: Is basic. All 18 FM channels and 24 channels of sample-based sound shares the same effect setting. Creative step-time sequencer programmers made pseudo effects like chorus, reverb and delay by overdubbing or using dedicated channels to repeat notes with delay and stereo panning. This is effective but quickly reduces the musical complexity possible. Moonsound version 1.0 had one socket for user sample RAM . Moonsound version 1.1 and 1.2 had two sockets for up to 1 MB SRAM . Some hackers and modders found out how to stack two additional SRAM chips resulting in 2 MB of SRAM. Being based on
1953-411: Is housed in a wide, short steel chassis intended to support the weight of a CRT monitor. The front panel is made of plastic, with an opening where one or two disk drives can be installed. The back panel houses a power inlet and switch, a keyboard connector, a cassette connector and a series of tall vertical slots with blank metal panels which can be removed in order to install expansion cards. Internally,
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#17328590739902046-526: The Amiga , Atari ST , and Apple IIGS . Unlike the PCjr, clones were as fast as or faster than the IBM PC and highly compatible so users could bring work home; the large DOS software library reassured those worried about orphaned technology . Consumers used them for both spreadsheets and entertainment, with the former ability justifying buying a computer that could also perform the latter. PCs and compatibles also gained
2139-457: The Apple II , or business systems that offered features not available on the IBM PC, such as a high level of integration (e.g., bundled accounting and inventory) or fault-tolerance and multitasking and multi-user features. Compaq's prices were comparable to IBM's, and the company emphasized its PC compatibles' features and quality to corporate customers. From mid-1985, what Compute! described as
2232-450: The CP/M operating system. Many other companies made "business personal computers" using their own proprietary designs, some still using 8-bit microprocessors. The ones that used Intel x86 processors often used the generic, non-IBM-compatible specific version of MS-DOS or CP/M-86 , just as 8-bit systems with an Intel 8080 compatible CPU normally used CP/M. [Bill] Gates predicts that in
2325-568: The Compaq Deskpro 386 was the first computer based on the Intel 80386 . In 1987 IBM unsuccessfully attempted to regain leadership of the market with the Personal System/2 line and proprietary MicroChannel Architecture . By 1990, Computer Gaming World told a reader complaining about the many reviews of IBM PC compatible games that "most companies are attempting to get their MS-DOS products out
2418-580: The EGA video card , an inexpensive clone was better for games than the other computers. MS-DOS software was 77% of all personal computer software sold by dollar value in the third quarter of 1988, up 47% year over year. By 1989 80% of readers of Compute! owned DOS computers, and the magazine announced "greater emphasis on MS-DOS home computing". IBM's influence on the industry decreased, as competition increased and rivals introduced computers that improved on IBM's designs while maintaining compatibility. In 1986
2511-570: The General Instrument CP1600 and CP1610 , the National Semiconductor INS8900 , Panafacom 's MN1610, Texas Instruments ' TMS9900 , and, most notably, the Intel 8086 . These new processors were expensive to incorporate in personal computers, as they used a 16-bit data bus and needed rare (and thus expensive) 16-bit peripheral and support chips. More than 50 new business-oriented personal computer systems came on
2604-578: The IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC), many other personal computer architectures became extinct within just a few years. It led to a wave of IBM PC compatible systems being released. Before the IBM PC was introduced, the personal computer market was dominated by systems using the 6502 and Z80 8-bit microprocessors, such as the TRS 80 , PET , and Apple II , which used proprietary operating systems, and by computers running CP/M . After IBM introduced
2697-565: The IBM System/23 Datamaster . The 62-pin expansion bus slots were also designed to be similar to the Datamaster slots, and its keyboard design and layout became the Model F keyboard shipped with the PC, but otherwise the PC design differed in many ways. The 8088 motherboard was designed in 40 days, with a working prototype created in four months, demonstrated in January 1981. The design
2790-626: The VGA video card and the Sound Blaster sound card (and its clones), most of the remaining home computers were driven from the market. The market in 1990 was more diverse outside the United States, but MS-DOS and Windows machines nonetheless came to dominate by the end of the decade. By 1995, other than the Macintosh, almost no new consumer-oriented systems were sold that were not IBM PC clones. Throughout
2883-470: The history of video games . Shortly after the IBM PC was released, an obvious split appeared between systems that opted to use an x86-compatible processor, and those that chose another architecture. Almost all of the x86 systems provided a version of MS-DOS. The others used many different operating systems, although the Z80-based systems typically offered a version of CP/M . The common usage of MS-DOS unified
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2976-486: The 1990s Apple transitioned the Macintosh from proprietary expansion interfaces to standards such as IDE , PCI , and USB . In 2006, Apple switched the Macintosh to the Intel x86 architecture, allowing them to optionally boot into Microsoft Windows , while still retaining unique design elements to support Apple's Mac OS X operating system. In 2008, Sid Meier listed the IBM PC as one of the three most important innovations in
3069-500: The 5100 had a price tag as high as $ 20,000. Their entry into the home computer market needed to be competitively priced. In 1980, IBM president John Opel, recognizing the value of entering this growing market, assigned William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge as heads of the new Entry Level Systems unit in Boca Raton, Florida. Market research found that computer dealers were very interested in selling an IBM product, but they insisted
3162-530: The BIOS, and therefore did not work on computers that were even trivially different from the IBM PC. This was especially common among PC games . As a result, the systems that were not fully IBM PC-compatible could not run this software, and quickly became obsolete. Rendered obsolete with them was the CP/M-inherited concept of OEM versions of MS-DOS meant to run (through BIOS calls) on non IBM-PC hardware. In 1984, Phoenix Technologies began licensing its clone of
3255-509: The CPU's I/O lines. IBM referred to these as "I/O slots", but after the expansion of the PC clone industry they became retroactively known as the ISA bus . At the back of the machine is a metal panel, integrated into the steel chassis of the system unit, with a series of vertical slots lined up with each card slot. Influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market Following the introduction of
3348-479: The Corporate Management Committee, which converted the group into a business unit named "Project Chess", and provided the necessary funding and authority to do whatever was needed to develop the computer in the given timeframe. The team received permission to expand to 150 people by the end of 1980, and in one day more than 500 IBM employees called in asking to join. The design process was kept under
3441-502: The FM synthesis portion: The Moonsound audio's power supply is isolated from its digital supply in an attempt to reduce noise. It has a separate stereo audio output as it is not mixed with the internal MSX sound. Moonblaster is a software designed by Remco Schrijvers based on his time-step sequencer software for other MSX sound cards. Moonblaster came in two versions, one for FM and one for sample-based synthesis. Later on, Marcel Delorme took over
3534-502: The IBM 5150's lifecycle and only usable with dedicated software support (i.e. only accessible via a RAM window in the Upper Memory Area ); this was relatively rarely equipped and utilized on the original IBM PC, much less fully so, thus the machine's maximum RAM configuration as commonly understood was 640 KB. The BIOS is the firmware of the IBM PC, occupying one 8 KB chip on the motherboard. It provides bootstrap code and
3627-468: The IBM PC BIOS. The Phoenix BIOS and competitors such as AMI BIOS made it possible for anyone to market a PC compatible computer, without having to develop a compatible BIOS like Compaq. Although based on the i8086 and enabling the creation of relatively low-cost x86-based systems, the Intel 80186 quickly lost appeal for x86-based PC builders because the supporting circuitry inside the Intel 80186 chip
3720-428: The IBM PC architecture to take a substantial market share of business applications, and many small companies that sold IBM-compatible software or hardware rapidly grew in size and importance, including Tecmar , Quadram , AST Research , and Microsoft . As of mid-1982, three other mainframe and minicomputer companies sold microcomputers, but unlike IBM, Hewlett-Packard , Xerox , and Control Data Corporation chose
3813-435: The IBM PC offered a port for connecting a cassette data recorder . Unlike the typical home computer however, this was never a major avenue for software distribution, probably because very few PCs were sold without floppy drives. The port was removed on the very next PC model, the XT. At release, IBM did not offer any hard disk drive option and adding one was difficult - the PC's stock power supply had inadequate power to run
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3906-399: The IBM PC was very significant to its success in the market. Some publications highlighted IBM's uncharacteristic decision to publish complete, thorough specifications of the system bus and memory map immediately on release, with the intention of fostering a market of compatible third-party hardware and software. The motherboard includes five 62-pin card edge connectors which are connected to
3999-541: The IBM PC". Customers only wanted to run PC applications like 1-2-3, and developers only cared about the massive PC installed base , so any non-compatible—no matter its technical superiority—from a company other than Apple failed for lack of customers and software. Compatibility became so important that Dave Winer joked that year (referring to the PC AT 's incomplete compatibility with the IBM PC), "The only company that can introduce
4092-582: The IBM PC, it was not until 1984 that IBM PC and clones became the dominant computers. In 1983, Byte forecast that by 1990, IBM would command only 11% of business computer sales. Commodore was predicted to hold a slim lead in a highly competitive market, at 11.9%. Around 1978, several 16-bit CPUs became available. Examples included the Data General mN601 , the Fairchild 9440 , the Ferranti F100-L ,
4185-485: The OEM version customized for IBM's use). However, they generally made no attempt to copy the IBM PC's architecture, so these machines had different I/O addresses, a different system bus, different video controllers, and other differences from the original IBM PC. These differences, which were sometimes rather minor, were used to improve upon the IBM PC's design, but as a result of the differences, software that directly manipulated
4278-742: The OPL4 chip, The FM registers of Moonsound are compatible with the OPL , OPL2 and OPL3 chips. The MSX-AUDIO contains a chip which is similar to and also compatible with the OPL. Therefore, some older software can make use of the Moonsound. The 2 MB ROM contained 330 mono samples, mostly at 22.05 kHz at 12 bits, but with some drums at 44.1 kHz. The FM part of the OPL4 chip can be configured in several ways: Four-operator FM allows for more complex sounds but reduces polyphony. Eight waveforms are available for
4371-462: The PC, covering such features as the bytecoding for color monitors, DMA access operation, and the keyboard interface. They were never enforced. Many of the designers were computer hobbyists who owned their own computers, including many Apple II owners, which influenced the decisions to design the computer with an open architecture and publish technical information so others could create compatible software and expansion slot peripherals. During
4464-500: The US home-computer market that year, and toy and discount stores sold a clone manufactured by Hyundai , the Blue Chip PC , like a stereo—without a demonstrator model or salesman. Tandy and other inexpensive clones succeeded with consumers—who saw them as superior to lower-end game machines—where IBM failed two years earlier with the PCjr. They were as inexpensive as home computers of a few years earlier, and comparable in price to
4557-406: The advantages of cloning became impossible to ignore. But before that some of the more notable systems that were x86-compatible, but not real clones, were: Not all manufacturers immediately switched to the Intel x86 microprocessor family and MS-DOS. A few companies continued releasing systems based on non-Intel architectures. Some of these systems used a 32-bit microprocessor, the most popular being
4650-461: The announcement as representative of the great impact IBM had made on the industry: It's become painfully obvious that the key to survival as a major manufacturer is acceptance by the business community. The IBM PC has unquestionably opened the door to that market wider than any personal computer before it, but in so doing has made compatibility a primary factor in microcomputer design, for better or for worse. Recent announcements by North Star ... and
4743-517: The chassis is dominated by a motherboard which houses the CPU, built-in RAM, expansion RAM sockets, and slots for expansion cards. The IBM PC was highly expandable and upgradeable, but the base factory configuration included: The PC is built around a single large circuit board called a motherboard which carries the processor, built-in RAM, expansion slots, keyboard and cassette ports, and the various peripheral integrated circuits that connected and controlled
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#17328590739904836-467: The company use a design based on standard parts, not IBM-designed ones so that stores could perform their own repairs rather than requiring customers to send machines back to IBM for service. Another source cites time pressure as the reason for the decision to use third-party components. Atari proposed to IBM in 1980 that it act as original equipment manufacturer for an IBM microcomputer, a potential solution to IBM's known inability to move quickly to meet
4929-567: The components of the machine. The peripheral chips included an Intel 8259 PIC , an Intel 8237 DMA controller, and an Intel 8253 PIT . The PIT provides 18.2 Hz clock "ticks" and dynamic memory refresh timing. The CPU is an Intel 8088 , a cost-reduced form of the Intel 8086 which largely retains the 8086's internal 16-bit logic, but exposes only an 8-bit bus. The CPU is clocked at 4.77 MHz, which would eventually become an issue when clones and later PC models offered higher CPU speeds that broke compatibility with software developed for
5022-426: The computer's (video) memory and peripheral chips, bypassing MS-DOS and the BIOS. For example, a program might directly update the video refresh memory, instead of using MS-DOS calls and device drivers to alter the appearance of the screen. Many notable software packages, such as the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3 , and Microsoft 's Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 , directly accessed the IBM PC's hardware, bypassing
5115-417: The design constraint to use off-the-shelf parts . The TMS9900 was rejected as it was inferior to the Intel 8088. IBM chose the 8088 over the similar but superior 8086 because Intel offered a better price for the former and could provide more units, and the 8088's 8-bit bus reduced the cost of the rest of the computer. The 8088 had the advantage that IBM already had familiarity with the 8085 from designing
5208-529: The design process IBM avoided vertical integration as much as possible, for example choosing to license Microsoft BASIC rather than utilizing the in-house version of BASIC used for mainframes due to the better existing public familiarity with the Microsoft version. The IBM PC debuted on August 12, 1981, after a twelve-month development. Pricing started at $ 1,565 for a configuration with 16 KB RAM, Color Graphics Adapter , keyboard, and no disk drives. The price
5301-466: The difficulty of doing so while rewriting Norton Utilities —that "there's no practical way for most software creators to write generic software". Dealers found carrying multiple versions of software for clones of varying levels of compatibility to be difficult. To get the best results out of the 8088's modest performance, many popular software applications were written specifically for the IBM PC. The developers of these programs opted to write directly to
5394-523: The door, first". It reported that in the US, MS-DOS comprised 65% of the computer-game market, the Amiga at 10%, and all other computers, including the Macintosh, were below 10% and declining. The Amiga and most others, such as the ST and various MSX2 computers, remained on the market until PC compatibles gained sufficient multimedia capabilities to compete with home computers. With the advent of inexpensive versions of
5487-528: The end of the year PC Magazine stated that even IBM could no longer introduce a rumored proprietary, non-compatible operating system. Noting that the company's unsuccessful PCjr 's "cardinal sin was that it wasn't PC compatible", the magazine wrote that "backward compatibility [with the IBM PC] is the single largest concern of hardware and software developers. The user community is too large and demanding to accept radical changes or abandon solutions that have worked in
5580-568: The era when a machine could be introduced successfully into the marketplace with a total dearth of software ended abruptly with the Macintosh. And those days will not return. Mitch Kapor of Lotus Development Corporation said in 1984 that "either you have to be PC-compatible or very special". "Compatibility has proven to be the only safe path", Microsoft executive Jim Harris stated in 1985, while InfoWorld wrote that IBM's competitors were "whipped into conformity" with its designs, because of "the total failure of every company that tried to improve on
5673-505: The first question that the computer community asks? "Is it PC compatible?" You don't ask whether a new machine is fast or slow, new technology or old. The first question is, "Is it PC compatible?" In February 1984 BYTE described how "the personal computer market seems to be shadowed under a cloud of compatibility: the drive to be compatible with the IBM Personal Computer family has assumed near-fetish proportions", which it stated
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#17328590739905766-427: The hardware would not run correctly. In most cases, the x86-based systems that did not use a fully IBM PC compatible design did not sell well enough to attract support from software manufacturers, though a few computer manufacturers arranged for compatible versions of popular applications to be developed and sold specifically for their machines. Fully IBM PC-compatible clones appeared on the market shortly thereafter, as
5859-450: The keyboard was extremely positive, with some sources describing it as a major selling point of the PC and even as "the best keyboard available on any microcomputer." At release, IBM provided a Game Control Adapter which offered a 15-pin port intended for the connection of up to two joysticks, each having two analog axes and two buttons. (The early PCs predated the advent of the " Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer" concept and so did not have
5952-496: The large, readily available, and relatively inexpensive family of 8-bit-compatible support chips. IBM decided to use the Intel 8088 after first considering the Motorola 68000 and the Intel 8086 , because the other two were considered to be too powerful for their needs. Although already established rivals like Apple and Radio Shack had many advantages over the company new to microcomputers, IBM's reputation in business computing allowed
6045-411: The latter provided medium- and low-resolution color graphics and text. CGA used the same scan rate as NTSC television , allowing it to provide a composite video output which could be used with any compatible television or composite monitor , as well as a direct-drive TTL output suitable for use with any RGBI monitor using an NTSC scan rate. IBM also sold the 5153 color monitor for this purpose, but it
6138-399: The market in the year before IBM released the IBM PC. Very few of them used a 16- or 32-bit microprocessor, as 8-bit systems were generally believed by the vendors to be perfectly adequate, and the Intel 8086 was too expensive to use. Some of the main manufacturers selling 8-bit business systems during this period were: On August 12, 1981, IBM released the IBM Personal Computer . One of
6231-547: The market, rumors of clones began, and the first legal PC-compatible clone—the MPC 1600 by Columbia Data Products —was released in June 1982, less than a year after the PC's debut. Eventually, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2004 . For low cost and a quick design turnaround time, the hardware design of the IBM PC used entirely "off-the-shelf" parts from third party manufacturers, rather than unique hardware designed by IBM. The PC
6324-458: The market, sold only 69,000. Software support from the industry grew rapidly, with the IBM nearly instantly becoming the primary target for most microcomputer software development. One publication counted 753 software packages available a year after the PC's release, four times as many as were available for the Macintosh a year after its launch. Hardware support also grew rapidly, with 30–40 companies competing to sell memory expansion cards within
6417-447: The most far-reaching decisions made for IBM PC was to use an open architecture , leading to a large market for third party add-in boards and applications; but finally also to many competitors all creating "IBM-compatible" machines. The IBM PC used the then-new Intel 8088 processor. Like other 16-bit CPUs, it could access up to 1 megabyte of RAM , but it used an 8-bit -wide data bus to memory and peripherals. This design allowed use of
6510-567: The most obvious use was the addition of an Intel 8087 math coprocessor, which improved floating-point math performance. PC mainboards were manufactured with the first memory bank of initially Mostek 4116-compatible, or later 4164-compatible DIP DRAMs soldered to the board, for a minimum configuration of first just 16 KB, or later 64 KB of RAM. Memory upgrades were provided by IBM and third parties both for socketed installation in three further onboard banks, and as ISA expansion cards. The early 16 KB mainboards could be upgraded to
6603-415: The new product. Reception was overwhelmingly positive, with analysts estimating sales volume in the billions of dollars in the first few years after release. After release, IBM's PC immediately became the talk of the entire computing industry. Dealers were overwhelmed with orders, including customers offering pre-payment for machines with no guaranteed delivery date. By the time the machine began shipping,
6696-421: The next six to nine months, several 8086 machines will be introduced. Just because a machine is based on the same processor, he explains, does not mean that all PC software will run on it. In some cases, software bypasses the operating system and uses specific hardware characteristics of the PC. Within a year of the IBM PC's introduction, Microsoft—the developer of its primary operating system, IBM PC DOS —licensed
6789-530: The operating system generically as MS-DOS to over 70 other companies. One of the first computers to achieve 100% PC compatibility was the Compaq Portable , released in November 1982; it remained the most compatible clone into 1984. Before the PC dominated the market, however, most systems were not clones of the IBM PC design, but had different internal designs , and ran Digital Research 's CP/M. The IBM PC
6882-430: The original IBM PC, including the Intel -based Mac computers manufactured from 2006 to 2022 . Prior to the 1980s, IBM had largely been known as a provider of business computer systems. As the 1980s opened, their market share in the growing minicomputer market failed to keep up with competitors, while other manufacturers were beginning to see impressive profits in the microcomputer space. The market for personal computers
6975-499: The original PC. The single base clock frequency for the system was 14.31818 MHz, which when divided by 3, yielded the 4.77 MHz for the CPU (which was considered close enough to the then 5 MHz limit of the 8088), and when divided by 4, yielded the required 3.579545 MHz for the NTSC color carrier frequency. The PC motherboard included a second, empty socket, described by IBM simply as an "auxiliary processor socket", although
7068-449: The past." Within a few years of the introduction of fully compatible PC clones, almost all rival business personal computer systems, and alternate x86 using architectures, were gone from the market. Despite the inherent dangers of an industry based on a de facto "standard" , a thriving PC clone industry emerged. The only other non-IBM PC-compatible systems that remained were those systems that were classified as home computers , such as
7161-440: The personal computer market ; the specifications of the IBM PC became one of the most popular computer design standards in the world. The only significant competition it faced from a non-compatible platform throughout the 1980s was from Apple 's Macintosh product line, as well as consumer-grade platforms created by companies like Commodore and Atari . Most present-day personal computers share architectural features in common with
7254-488: The personal-computer market, but had attempted to keep technical information secret to monopolize software and peripheral sales —also began selling non-proprietary computers; four years after its Jon Shirley predicted to InfoWorld that the new IBM PC's "major market would be IBM addicts", the magazine in 1985 similarly called the IBM compatibility of the Tandy 1000 "no small concession to Big Blue's dominating stranglehold" by
7347-449: The production of large, sophisticated and expensive business systems. As with other large computer companies, its new products typically required about four to five years for development, and a well publicized quote from an industry analyst was, "IBM bringing out a personal computer would be like teaching an elephant to tap dance." IBM had previously produced microcomputers, such as 1975's IBM 5100 , but targeted them towards businesses;
7440-572: The software development. As most developers were active in gaming software, many game companies such as Sunrise (in the Netherlands) developed and composed music specifically for Moonsound. List of software for the Moonsound: Additional software tools were able to rip sound loops digitally from audio CDs inserted in a CD-ROM drive connected to any of the SCSI and ATA-IDE interfaces. This software
7533-407: The term "PC" was becoming a household name. Sales exceeded IBM's expectations by as much as 800% (9x), with the company at one point shipping as many as 40,000 PCs per month. IBM estimated that home users made up 50 to 70% of purchases from retail stores. In 1983, IBM sold more than 750,000 machines, while Digital Equipment Corporation , one of the companies whose success had spurred IBM to enter
7626-593: The x86-based systems, promoting growth of the x86/MS-DOS "ecosystem". As the non-x86 architectures died off, and x86 systems standardized into fully IBM PC compatible clones, a market filled with dozens of different competing systems was reduced to a near- monoculture of x86-based, IBM PC compatible, MS-DOS systems. Early after the launch of the IBM PC in 1981, there were still dozens of systems that were not IBM PC-compatible, but did use Intel x86 chips. They used Intel 8088, 8086, or 80186 processors, and almost without exception offered an OEM version of MS-DOS (as opposed to
7719-452: Was "inevitable in the light of the phenomenal market acceptance of the IBM PC". The magazine cited the announcement by North Star in fall 1983 of its first PC-compatible microcomputer. Founded in 1976, North Star had long been successful with 8-bit S-100 bus products, and had introduced proprietary 16-bit products, but now the company acknowledged that the IBM PC had become a "standard", one which North Star needed to follow. BYTE described
7812-474: Was created by a team of engineers and designers at International Business Machines (IBM), directed by William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida . Powered by an x86 -architecture Intel 8088 processor, the machine was based on open architecture and third-party peripherals. Over time, expansion cards and software technology increased to support it. The PC had a substantial influence on
7905-406: Was designed by Henrik Gilvad for MSX Club Gouda and Sunrise Swiss. The Moonsound has been emulated in MSX emulators such as blueMSX and openMSX . IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC ) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard . Released on August 12, 1981, it
7998-402: Was designed to compete with comparable machines in the market. For comparison, the Datamaster, announced two weeks earlier as IBM's least expensive computer, cost $ 10,000. IBM's marketing campaign licensed the likeness of Charlie Chaplin 's character " The Little Tramp " for a series of advertisements based on Chaplin's movies, played by Billy Scudder. The PC was IBM's first attempt to sell
8091-444: Was difficult to obtain for several years after its introduction. Many makers of MS-DOS computers intentionally avoided full IBM compatibility because they expected that the market for what InfoWorld described as "ordinary PC clones" would decline. They feared the fate of companies that sold computers plug-compatible with IBM mainframes in the 1960s and 1970s—many of which went bankrupt after IBM changed specifications—and believed that
8184-538: Was dominated at the time by Tandy , Commodore , and Apple , whose machines sold for several hundred dollars each and had become very popular. The microcomputer market was large enough for IBM's attention, with $ 15 billion in sales by 1979 and projected annual growth of more than 40% during the early 1980s. Other large technology companies had entered it, such as Hewlett-Packard , Texas Instruments and Data General , and some large IBM customers were buying Apples. As early as 1980 there were rumors of IBM developing
8277-406: Was essentially complete by April 1981, when it was handed off to the manufacturing team. PCs were assembled in an IBM plant in Boca Raton, with components made at various IBM and third party factories. The monitor was an existing design from IBM Japan ; the printer was manufactured by Epson . Because none of the functional components were designed by IBM, they obtained only a handful of patents on
8370-430: Was incompatible with those used in the standard PC chipset as implemented by IBM. It was very rarely used in personal computers after 1982. Imagine that Cray computer decides to make a personal computer. It has a 100 MHz processor, 20 megabytes of RAM, 500 megabytes of disk storage, a screen resolution of 1024 X 1024 pixels, relies entirely on voice recognition for input, fits in your shirt pocket and costs $ 3,000. What's
8463-533: Was initially developed for the IBM Datamaster , and was substantially better than the keyboards provided with virtually all home computers on the market at that time in many regards - number of keys, reliability and ergonomics. While some home computers of the time utilized chiclet keyboards or inexpensive mechanical designs, the IBM keyboard provided good ergonomics, reliable and positive tactile key mechanisms and flip-up feet to adjust its angle. Public reception of
8556-450: Was not available at release and was not released until March 1983. MDA scanned at a higher frequency and required a proprietary monitor, the IBM 5151 . The card also included a built-in printer port. Both cards could also be installed simultaneously for mixed graphics and text applications. For instance, AutoCAD , Lotus 1-2-3 and other software allowed use of a CGA Monitor for graphics and
8649-539: Was unusual for its time. From the factory it came equipped with one 128 KB SRAM chip for user samples. Two generations were made. The first is a small size PCB without a box. Later, a larger size PCB which fit into an MSX cartridge was available. The later version had room for two sample SRAM chips resulting in 1 MB of compressed user samples. Sound effects like chorus, delay and reverb are omitted due to cost, size and usability reasons. The Yamaha effect chip requires its own specialised memory and effect routing
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