Компьютерная техника. Еремина Н.В. - 40 стр.

announcement of the IBM PC Thanks to an open architecture, IBM s clout and Lotus
1-2-3 (announced one year later) the PC and its progeny made business micros
legitimate and transformed the personal computer world The PC used Intel's 16-bit
8088, and for $3000, it came with 64 KB of RAM and a S^-inch floppy drive. The
printer adapter and monochrome monitor were extras, as was the color graphics
adapter.

       • Compaq Portable
       Compaq's Portable almost single-handedly created the PC clone market. Although that was
about all you could do with it single-handedly - it weighed a ton. Columbia Data Products just
preceded Compaq that year with the first true IBM PC clone but didn't survive. It was Compaq's
quickly gained reputation for engineering and quality, and its essentially 100 percent IBM
compatibility (reverse-engineering, of course), that legitimized the clone market. But was it really
designed on a napkin?


       • Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100
       Years before PC-compatible subnotebook computers, Radio Shack came out
with a book-size portable with a combination of features, battery life, weight, and
price that is still unbeatable. (Of course, the Z80-based Model 100 didn't have to run
Windows.)
       The $800 Model 100 had only an 8-row by 40-column reflective LCD (large at
the time) but supplied ROM-based applications (including text editor,
communications program, and BASIC interpreter), a built-in modem, I/O ports,
nonvolatile RAM, and a great keyboard. Wieghing under 4 pounds, and with a
battery life measured in weeks (on four AA batteries), the Model 100 quickly became
the first popular laptop, especially among journalists.
       With its battery-backed RAM, the Model 100 was always in standby mode,
ready to take notes, write a report, or go on-line. NEC's PC 8201 was essentially the
same Kyocera-manufectured system.

       • Apple Macintosh
       Whether you saw it as a seductive invitation to personal computing or a cop-
out to wimps who were afraid of a command line, Apple's Macintosh and its GUI
generated even more excitement than the IBM PC. Apple's R&D people were
inspired by critical ideas from Xerox PARK (and practiced on Apple's Lisa) but
added many of their own ideas to create a polished product that changed the way
people use computers.
       The original Macintosh used Motorola's 16-bit 68000 microprocessor. At
$2495, the system offered a built-in-high-resolution monochrome display, the Mac
OS, and a single-button mouse. With only 128 KB of RAM, the Mac was
underpowered at first. But Apple included some key applications that made the
Macintosh immediately useful. (It was MacPaint that finally showed people what a
mouse is good for.)