My personal computer

These machines used eight-bit microprocessors which process information in groups of eight bits, or binary digitsat a time and possessed rather limited memory capacity—i. They typically could be used with a television already in the home as the computer display, with low-detail blocky graphics and a limited color range, and text about 40 characters wide by 25 characters tall.

Together, these 3 machines were referred to as the " trinity". By some personal computers had become small enough to be completely portable. Altair computer saw the introduction of what is considered by many to be the first true "personal computer", the Altair created by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems MITS.

Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit microcomputer based on a microprocessor, the Intel In the s, several companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Sony sold off their PC and laptop divisions.

The Apple II received a great boost in popularity when it became the host machine for VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet computerized accounting program.

To cut costs, the machine was built without the ability to type lowercase letters. The machines were expensive and difficult to use.

But because personal computers were much less expensive than mainframe computers the bigger computers typically deployed by large business, industry, and government organizationsthey could be purchased by individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, and primary and secondary schools.

During the early s, home computers were further developed for household use, with software for personal productivity, programming and games.

The demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time. As a result, the personal computer was declared dead several times during this period.

Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc. The uses of personal computers continued to multiply as the machines became more powerful and their application software proliferated. A GUI is a display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a device called a mouse to point to pictorial symbols icons or lists of menu choices on the screen.

In the late s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton. This had been preceded by the Datapoint infor which the Intel had been commissioned, though not accepted for use.

Personal computers were increasingly interconnected with each other and with larger computers in networks for the purpose of gathering, sending, and sharing information electronically.

The Bendix G15 of was intended for use without an operating staff, and several hundred were made; it was too costly to be personally owned, however.

By the early s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person.

Another innovative feature for that time was the user interface combining a keyboard with a monitor and light pen for correcting texts and drawing on screen.

They were operated by specialized technicians, who often dressed in white lab coats and were commonly referred to as a computer priesthood. Faster, smaller, and more-powerful PCs These advances in software and operating systems were matched by the development of microprocessors containing ever-greater numbers of circuits, with resulting increases in the processing speed and power of personal computers.

Windows became the dominant operating environment for personal computers. At the request of Paul Terrellowner of the Byte ShopJobs and Wozniak were given their first purchase order, for 50 Apple I computers, only if the computers were assembled and tested and not a kit computer.

The Apple I as delivered was still technically a kit computer, as it did not have a power supply, case, or keyboard when it was delivered to the Byte Shop. The Apple I computer differed from the other kit-style hobby computers of era. It was built starting inand few hundred units were sold.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Courtesy of 3Com Corporation By more than 50 percent of all households in the United States owned a personal computer, and this penetration increased dramatically over the next few years as people in the United States and around the world purchased PCs to access the world of information available through the Internet.

Of these computers, the TRS dominated the market. At the high end of the PC market, multimedia personal computers equipped with DVD players and digital sound systems allowed users to handle animated images and sound in addition to text and still images that were stored on high-capacity DVD-ROMs.

Few… From hobby computers to Apple Computers small and inexpensive enough to be purchased by individuals for use in their homes first became feasible in the s, when large-scale integration made it possible to construct a sufficiently powerful microprocessor on a single semiconductor chip.Personal computer: Personal computer (PC), a digital computer designed for use by only one person at a time.

A typical personal computer assemblage consists of a central processing unit (CPU), which contains the computer’s arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry on an integrated circuit; two types of computer.

A personal computer is a multi-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. PCs are intended to be operated dire. How do I access my military email account on my personal computer?

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Sign Up With Email | I have an account. Other info: This is a IBM Personal Computer XT (For extended) The original IBM Personal Computer came out on August 12, This is the successor to that. This is the successor to that. permalink.

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solved I'm building my first computer for both personal and (at-home) business use and could use expert advice.