The Maverick Martinez Archive

IBM has got to be one of the oldest known COMPUTER COMPANIES that has graced the Earth.

The Company was founded in 1911 and it originally wasn't manufacturing computers when it was first founded despite being originally named

COMPUTING-TABULATING-RECORDING-COMPANY

They primarily were manufacturing all sorts of things like cheese slicers, paper tapes, time recorders, etc.

But CEO THOMAS J WATSON wasn't happy with the name list above so he decided to use a name that the company's CANADIAN DIVISION was already using which is

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES....

or IBM for short.

As the years went by, They eventually delved into Manufacturing Computers

At first, IBM was slow to adopt new technologies due to the company's notorious BUREAUCRATIC APPROACH to their business.

They at first were slow to transition from

VACUUM TUBE COMPUTERS

to TRANSISTORIZED COMPUTERS,

they were also slow to adapt to MINICOMPUTERS

instead of MAINFRAMES,

To quote The Late STEVE JOBs in his January 1984 keynote:

"IBM dismissed the Minicomputer as too small for any serious computing and therefore unimportant for their business."

Uhh........ ok.

Not wanting to make that same mistake again once the MICROCOMPUTER was starting to emerge, IBM decided to take an early jab at it with their IBM 5100 as shown below

Please,

No STEINS GATE references for the love of THOMAS WATSON!!!!!

But typical to IBM, These machines were WAY OVERPRICED.

But even without taking expensive RAM prices back in the 70s into question,

IBM refused to lower the price because to them, the BUSINESS MARKET was more important than the HOME USER.

And they even refused to acknowledge the 1977 TRINITY

Then, FAST FORWARD into 1981,

and things took a dramatic turn.

Some employees discovered that even though these Computers listed above as well as some others that came later such as those from ATARI and TEXAS INSTRUMENTS were not only more affordable for the end user but they could still be useful in the office and education.

And indeed they were.

What's worse for IBM back then between 1977 to 1981 is that BIG BLUE was quickly losing it's dominance in the BUSINESS FIELD due to BUSINESSES switching from MINICOMPUTERS to MICROCOMPUTERS.....

Though many businesses who didn't invest in COMMODORE PETS, APPLE IIs, or TANDYs would instead invest in computers that used CP/M like the KAYPROs or OSBORNES for example

Another problem that these IBM employees also wanted to fix was COMPATABILITY ISSUES.

None of the computers made before IBM entered the market were compatible with one another due to their differing CPUs and File Formats.

While most of the early MICROS used MOS TECHNOLOGY'S 6502 CPU, some used ZILOG's Z80 instead.

And even the 6502 based Computers were not compatible with one another due to their differing file formats for their DOS systems once FLOPPY DISKS took over TAPE.

And even though CP/M looks to be compatible thanks to it's heavy usage on many computers that used it, even it wasn't fully compatible due to differing file formats in each different machine.

For example, A KAYPRO can't read an OSBORNE formatted DISK.

And some OSBORNES that were upgraded to DUAL-DENSITY can't have it's data read on an original single density OSBORNE.

So.......

These IBM employees got to work on making their computer.

One of the things they had to do was to market the computer not just to businesses but also to smaller business, schools, and even the home market so to be cost competitive to the other computers in the market.

But they also wanted to make the computer USER SERVICEABLE just like the APPLE II was and still is.

This also meant using OFF-THE-SHELF components which would greatly reduce the cost and the need to also use a THIRD PARTY OPERATING SYSTEM was also a must as well.

While IBM was fierce in their control of components manufacturing, sales, and repairs,

They reneged once they got caught off guard with how many orders of their planned machine would be so the executives at IBM assigned two people to work on this new project.

WILLIAM C. LOWE

PHILIP DON ESTRIDGE

were assigned to the project.

Market research also showed that COMPUTER DEALERS would also prefer if the computer used off-the-shelf-parts instead of those made exclusively by IBM so the idea was that not only could the END-USER service the machines themselves but also the retailers and repair outlets.

I also found it rather interesting that IBM almost was in a partnership with ATARI to become it's ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER..... or OEM for short....

A telltale sign of things to come..... in several years time.....

But when ATARI backed out, IBM was left to fend for themselves.

Several CPUs were considered, including TEXA INSTRUMENTS, MOTOROLA, and INTEL.

In the end, it was the INTEL 8088 that was chosen to work with the board design

IBM was prepared to use the 68000 as the main CPU but at that time in the early 1980s, it wasn't production-ready yet and won't be for another few years.

IBM's own proprietary 801 RISC CPU was also considered but that too was also rejected, most likely due to cost and the fact that it's presence violated the PC's OFF-THE-SHELF mantra.

And the TEXAS INSTRUMENTS CPU was rejected because it's 16 Bits of Address Space was inferior to the INTEL 8088's 20 Bits of Address Space.

To also add into the appeal of the OFF-THE-SHELF approach, IBM also made the CPU user replaceable....

Well by this point all other CPUs were USER REPLACEABLE but only for swapping out with the exact same CPU if it's the right match.

IBM took a different approach.

They also made contact with a little known CHIP FAB called ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES to handle backup supply of a clone chip under their name as a second source manufacturer.

This would lead to greater things for AMD in the later future but that's a story for another time.

One thing that was majorly different about this machine compared to the other computers released at that time, even APPLE,

was that IBM decided to leave a GRAPHIC CHIP out of the board design as to lower production costs.

But how are you gonna have graphics on the SCREEN?

Well..... IBM would rather prefer the DEALERSHIP approach

Uh...... Not like a Car Dealership......

More like a Computer Dealership

This was obviously before the days of seeing computers in places like

TOYS R US, BEST BUY, COMP USA, etc.......

Anyway....

The idea was that you buy a PC from the dealership, and then they tell you what GRAPHICS CARD you want to buy alongside the accompanying monitor.'

The PC originally gave you two choices:

MDA(Monochrome Display Adapter)

CGA(Color Graphics Adapter)

After you choose, they dealer installs the Card for you as well as well as bundle the Monitor that comes with it.

And yes, it's possible to order the two cards and monitors into one bundle even if that adds additional cost to the purchase

As for the KEYBOARD,

IBM decided to just take the guts out of an old KEYBOARD they used for an earlier system, make a new case mold for the keyboard, and call it a day.

This would give birth to the MODEL F KEYBOARD

One thing however was indeed missing before the machine was ready for prime time.

and that was the OPERATING SYSTEM.

IBM originally set out to use CP/M since it was industry standard for so many business computers but that required meeting with GARY KILDALL of DIGITAL RESEARCH to obtain the license to use the OS.

But when things fell through due to KILDALL's wife DOROTHY having her birthday at the time of the meeting as well as IBM's board of directors getting impatient,

They instead decided to go to MICROSOFT who just licensed a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from SEATTLE COMPUTER PRODUCTS.

86-DOS was later reworked into MS-DOS which actually was a good thing since this allowed the OS to also fulfill the PC's OFF-THE-SHELF requirements since CP/M would just introduce another headache involving file format compatibility problems while MS-DOS would be entirely compatible if the clone computer uses the same architecture which I'll discuss later.

To build up hype for these new machines, IBM decided to run advertising campaigns featuring the classic CHARLIE CHAPLIN character THE TRAMP

On AUGUST 12 1981,

The IBM 5150 PC was finally released into retail to applause like never before seen.

But by the the time of 1982 and 1983, the seams were starting to unravel.... according to other companies.

APPLE wasn't happy about being dealt with another competitor like IBM, especially since the computer was released a year after APPLE fumbled with the APPLE III in 1980...

So pressure was high for APPLE to remain competitive with their own hardware.

Apple Lisa (1983)

Apple Macintosh 128k (1984)

COMMODORE was also annoyed....

While their COMMODORE 64 computer was still selling like hotcakes for the HOME MARKET,

the company didn't care about that but rather cared about the profits generated by the BUSINESS and EDUCATION sector which not only APPLE took away from CHICKEN LIPS but also the IBM PC represented a threat to COMMODORE...

After COMPUTERS like the TED series

as well as the C128

and AMIGA line of Computers

failed to win back the business market,

COMMODORE threw the towel..... not in a financial way but rather in a JOIN THE CROWD way...... which I'll discuss a little later.

TANDY also had issues with the fact that their TANDY Line of business computers

were also losing ground to both APPLE and IBM and their COLOR COMPUTER series also likely faced similar competition though that was more like it was going up against the likes of ATARI, COMMODORE, and APPLE.

It became clear that in order for seasoned companies or newcomers that in order to compete against IBM and their BRAND SPANKING NEW PC, they are gonna have to join the crowd.

While the same was attempted with APPLE,

APPLE sued the hell out of these companies who dared attempt to clone the APPLE II.

But since the IBM PC used OFF-THE-SHELF-COMPONENTS when compared to other Computer companies who all held copyrights on their chips,

The cloners wouldn't have to worry about anything.....

maybe except the BIOS CODES but that can be reverse-engineered.

This gave birth to the PC-COMPATIBLE CLONES...

Compaq Portable(1983)

The Original Compaq Deskpro(1983)

Hyperion Computer (1983)

Olivetti M24(1983)

Columbia Data Products MPC 1600 (1982)

Hewlett Packard 150 (1983)

You thought this would lead to a greater success for IBM but in reality, the profits went to the clone manufacturer and not IBM which not only annoyed BIG BLUE but also it made IBM regret the OFF-THE-SHELF approach but they could do nothing to reverse the approach without inducing heavy backlash...

if the failure of the PCJR in 1983

IBM PCJR with Original Chiclet Keyboard(1983)

and the controversies of the 1987 PS/2 System's Micro Channel ARCHITECTURE

Are any indication.

As for why I paused during mentions about COMMODORE and TANDY's annoyance with losing their market share to IBM, now's the time for me to get into what happened.

COMMODORE, having had enough of getting their C128 and AMIGA computers be only regarded as GAME MACHINES, decided to just enter the PC market, which made all the more sense since JACK TRAMIEL left the company.

And this led to their PC-COMPATIBLE machines.

Commodore PC COLT(1987)

Not much about these machines make them unique aside from their brand recognition of the COMMODORE NAME and the use of some cards such as those form PLANTRONICS though those cards often come from clone manufacturers like ATI.

The one company that entered the fray that's more interesting however was TANDY.

After they had enough of their numbers dwindle on their BUSINESS computers,

Tandy decided to enter the PC market.

Even though their first effort which was the TANDY 2000 failed,

They didn't give up as it was only an experiment for them.

When the PCJR was coming around the CORNER, TANDY decided to clone that computer for a project they were making for the HOME MARKET but make it better such as bringing back TRADITIONAL EXPANSION SLOTS, using any CGA monitor, etc.

When it became clear that IBM's PCJR was a failure, rather than remove the cloned features of the PCJR, TANDY just called their new computer PC COMPATIBLE and it worked like a charm

The TANDY 1000 as it would be known would keep the advantages of the PCJR but retain 100% compatibility with the PC in terms of expansion, Monitors, etc.

For some manufacturers who chose their more proprietary route,

They also decided to venture into the realm of ADD-ONs that allowed their more proprietary computers to use PC hardware without either heavily modifying the internals of their host machine or using software solutions that would bog down the performance.

Some of these ADD-ONs would include things like

Apple's MacCharlie for the MACINTOSH 128K, 512K, and PLUS series.

and

COMMODORE's AMIGA SIDECAR for the COMMODORE AMIGA 1000

Made support for the IBM architecture all the more suitable.... if you want to.

Eventually, come forth the 90s,

The IBM PC Compatible market risen to such extremes that the name IBM COMPATIBLE became disused and it just became the PC market as manufacturers can customize their own hardware to the customer's liking regardless if it's from a known brand

or a white-box no name brand.

And this made all the more sense that the PC still has market dominance since after the release of WINDOWS 95 in AUGUST 1995, the dominance was solidified.

What originally had School Computer Rooms be dominated with APPLE IIs or MACINTOSHES

Nowadays, if SCHOOL's even still have Computer rooms.... to which I still believe they do....

They all run WINDOWS Computers....

Though unlike with the older methods which often used DOS environments or even untouched hard drives,

These LABS use the PXE-Network boot environment to boot their OS from a remote server in the buildings these labs are built in.

The PC Architecture has changed throughout the years since it was first introduced in 1981.

The Off-The-Shelf Approach not only made things easier to make a clone of the PC but it also enabled the most savvy of people to build their own Machines using standardized parts.