23 Apr
2002
23 Apr
'02
2:11 p.m.
--- Richard Erlacher <edick(a)idcomm.com> wrote:
AT AT AT 80286 IBM PC AT
I don't think that model was available in 1981. I am fairly certain
that the only model available in 1981 was the IBM 5150 PC. Not the XT.
It came in two basic flavors - 16KB and 64KB. CGA extra. Disk drives
extra. Just about everything extra.
You missed my point. No it couldn't. I was attempting to suggest why
the PC became the preeminent platform at home, sweeping aside the C-64
and other challengers. After 1981, people tended to have a PC at work,
so they wanted something at home that could a) run software they took
home with them and b) read disks and files they took home, too. If
someone was going to spend more than $1,000, they wanted compatibility
with the box on their desk at work.
Real world example of the transition: in 1984, a company I worked for
(Software Productions) debated producing a PC port of our widely successful
children's products for the BBC Micro, Apple II and C-64. In 1984 there
was not substantial demand for home software for DOS, not compared to
the armada of 8-bit machines people had at home.
A few years later, there would have been no debate. By the time EGA
graphics became ordinary, no serious software company could ignore
the massive quantity of PC clones in the home. There were still millions
of C-64s in place, but it wasn't the undisputed king any longer.
-ethan
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The PC-AT came
out several years later with a
standard configuration price (including hard disk) of $5K.
August of '81, IIRC. I got my technical reference in March of '82.
But it
wasn't the graphics that did it - 80 column text was important
to the PC, as was compatbility between home and work.
Compatibility? Could the PC easily read Commodore 64 diskettes?