Day in history: first mass-produced personal computer developed

On August 12, 1981, in one of the divisions of IBM, the development of the first ever personal computer (PC), the IBM 5150 model, was completed. The era of mass computerization began.

Before that, computer manufacturers did not target the mass consumer. Initially, IBM worked only for large orders, creating expensive large universal servers (mainframes), which were supplied, mainly, to government organizations, educational, scientific institutions and large corporations.

The first PC model IBM 5150 was developed within a year, work began in July 1980 and was completed on August 12, 1981. The work was carried out in a division of the city of Boca Raton, Florida, USA.
The most expensive PC configuration cost $ 3,005 and was powered by an Intel 8088 processor operating at frequency 4.77 MHz. The amount of RAM was 64 Kbytes. Due to insufficient power supply capacity, there was no hard disk in the IBM 5150, and 5.25-inch floppy drives were supposed to be used for permanent data storage.

Already in the first year, the number of computer sales exceeded 130,000. By 2000, 140 million personal computers were sold worldwide. Today there are more than a billion of them in the world.

Personal computers have radically changed the life of mankind in the technological and socio-cultural spheres.