A personal computer
(PC) is a multi-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it
feasible for individual use. Personal computer are intended to be operated
directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or technician. Unlike
large costly minicomputer and mainframes, time-sharing by many people at the
same time is not used with personal computer.
Institutional or
corporate computer owners in the 1960s had to write their own programs to do
any useful work with the machines. While personal computer users may develop
their own application, usually these systems run commercial software,
free-of-charge software. Which is most often propriety, or free and open-source
software, which is provided in ''ready-to-run'', or binary, from. Software for
personal computers is typically developed and distributed independently from
the hardware or operating system manufactures. Many personal computer users no
longer need to write their own programs to make any use of a personal computer,
although end-user programming is still feasible. This contrasts with mobile
systems, where software is often only available through a manufacturer
supported channel, and end-user program development may be discouraged by lack
of support by the manufactures.
Since the early
1990s, Microsoft operating system and Intel hardware dominated much of the
personal computer market, first with MS_DOS and then with Microsoft Windows.
Alternatives to Microsoft's Windows operating system occupy a minority share of
the industry. These include Apple's macOS and free and open-source Unix-like
operating systems, such as linux.
The advent of
personal computer and the concurrent Digital Revolution have significantly
affected the live of people in all countries.
Terminology
''PC'' is an initialism for ''personal
computer''. The IBM Personal Computer incorporated the designation in its
model. It is sometimes useful to distinguish prsonal computer of the ''IBM
Personal computer'' family from personal computer made by other manufacturers.
For example, ''PC'' is used in contacts with ''MAC'', an Apple Macintosh
computer. Since none of these Apple product were mainframes or time-sharing
system, they wre all ''personal computers'' and not ''PC''(brand) computer.
History
The ''brain '' [
computer] may one day level [of the
common people] and help with our income-tax book-keeping caculations. But this
is speculation and there is no sign of it so for.
British
News paper The star
in a June 1949 news article about the EDSAC computer long before the era of the
personal computers.
In the history of
computing, early experiment machine could be operated by a single attendant.
For example,ENIAC which became
operational in 1946 could be run by a single, albeit highly trained, person.
This mode pre-dated the batch programming, or time-sharing modes with multiple
users connected through terminal to mainframe computers. Computers intended for
laboratory, instrumentation, or engineering purpose were built, and could be
operated by one person in an intetractive fashion. Example include such system
as the Bendix G15 and LPG 30 of 1956, and the Soviet MIR series of computer
development from 1965 to 1069.
By the eraly 1970s,
people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for songle
person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations,
although these system would still have been too expensive would still have been
too expensive to be owen by a single person.
The personal
computer was made possible by major advance in semiconductor technology. In
195, the silicon integrated cirduit (IC) chip was development by Robert Noyce
at Fairchild Semiconductor, and the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor
was developed by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs. The MOS
integrated circuit was commercialized by RCA in 1964 and then the silicon-gate
MOS integrated circuit was development by Febderico Faggin at Fairchild in
1968. Faggin later used silicon-gate MOS technology to develop the first
single-chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004, in1971. The first microcomputer,
based on microprocessors, were developed during the early 1970s.
Widespread
commercial avallibility of microprocessors, from the mid-1970s onwards, made
computer cheap enough for small businesses and indiduals to own.
In what was
later to be called the Mothjer of All
Demos, SRI researcher Douglas Engelbart in 1968 gave a preview of feature that
would later become staple of personal computers; email, hypertext, word
processing, video confercing, and the mouse. The demonstation required
technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too
costly for individual business use at time.
Early personal
computer-generally called microcomputers-were often sold ina kit from and in
limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians.
Minimal in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbysist and
technicians. Minimal programming was done wit toggle switches to enter
instructions, and output was provided by front panel lamps. Pratical use
required adding peripherals such as keyboard ,computer display, disk, drives,
and printers.
Micral N was the
earliest commericial, non-kit microcomputer based on microprocessor, the
Intel8008. It was built starting in 1972, and a few hundred units were sold.
This has been preceded by the Datapoint 2200 in 1970, for which the itel 8008
had been commissioned, though not accepted for use. The CPU design implemented
in the Datapoint 2200 became the basis for x86 architecture used the original
IBM PC and its descendants.
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