The Greatest Half-Decade in PC History
By Harry McCracken | Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 2:59 am
The personal computer revolution is roughly thirty-five years old, which means that been through seven half-decades so far. To me, the most interesting one is the first half of the 1980s–when PCs were really getting going, and hadn’t yet become commodified through compatibility. Almost every new one was an experiment, whether it was wildly successful or a flop.
I’ve assembled a gallery of patent drawings of some noteworthy machines of the era, including ones you know–and, maybe, owned–and ones I’m not sure ever even had the chance to roll off an assembly line.
View Patentmania! Personal Computers of the Early 80s gallery
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May 27th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Hey Harry,
Nice collection of PC’s from the early 80’s. Some of those I had never seen before. It is always a lot of fun to take a historical perspective on evolving technology, and the PC is no different. I am constantly amazed at the amount of technology that is introduced to the marketplace and the small percentage that actually makes it. I know on a personal level, while I have been at Intel I have seen numerous technologies and groups boom and bust. The mobile group for years was almost a secretive society. I was a part of the Toys group at Intel which launched the cameras, microscopes and MP3 players and it was a good run, albeit a short one. The technology that I am most excited about will be hitting the market place later this year. It is the ultra low voltage processors that will provide a real differentiation from the current line-up of processor. The new ultra low voltage processors will ultimate enable a fully functioning laptops capable of running heavy duty applications without all of the weight of a associated with current mainstream laptops. In other words laptops at mainstream prices that will rival Mac Air, and Adamos as thinner and lighter.
Keep up the good work with Technologizer.com.
Michael Taylor works for Intel and is a consumer client platform marketing expert.
Check out what Intel is up to @ http://bit.ly/HWf0v #tomorrow