PC Gallery

The first mass produced computer appears in 1965

The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP8 or Desktop 8 as it was known, was a personal computer, but few would recognise it as such today

The change in the electronics of computers from valves to transistors enabled lots of transistors to be connected to make a ‘chip’ or ‘Integrated Circuit’.

The PDP8 benefited from this technology by allowing logic boards or ‘flip-chip’ boards as they were known, to be made using transistors, resistors, diodes and capacitors in a much smaller footprint, and allow lots of them to be connected together to make a small, but powerful computer for its day.

The first microprocessor is produced in 1971

Computers with screens (usually TV screens) and keyboards became small enough to fit on or under desktops and with a price tag that individuals could now afford.

Many of the early designs were published in magazines and hobbyists made them at home. Companies such as Nacom were formed who designed and supplied some of the earliest ‘kits’ where you could get the PCB and all the components to build your own 8 bit computer. Often you had to make the case yourself, but other companies were formed who designed and sold cases for these home-built machines, but you will still see many cases made of wood.

Sinclair: That's Sir Clive Sinclair, an eminent inventor and entrepreneur of the 70s and 80s who formed Sinclair Research. He was one of the first pioneers of the home computer business by designing and selling the ZX80, the first computer for under £100,, although you had to build it yourself for that price. That was soon followed by the ZX81, ready built this time, and then the Spectrum and QLs. He even tendered for the computer to be used by the BBC, but lost out to Acorn. He also designed the first electronic scientific calculators and the famous red led watch.

But his most infamous design was the Sinclair C5 electric 'car', but the less said about that the better. We have a number of Sir Clive's inventions on display for you to play with (this does not include the C5 I'm afraid) and some which are ‘look only’.

But while he was a good inventor, he was not a good businessman and eventually sold his business to Amstrad.

Amstrad: Another of those British success stories was Amstrad, a company founded by Sir Alan Sugar, who introduced the first British designed and built IBM-compatible(ish!) computer in 1986, the Amstrad 1512, for under £500. Unlike the IBM, the Amstrad was aimed at the home market rather than the office and, when first released, they could not make enough to satisfy demand. We have several Amstrad PCs on display and available to use.

Acorn: Did you know that our very own BBC (yes that's the British Broadcasting Corporation) was instrumental in commissioning mass-market computers in the early 1980s?

One of the most iconic home computers of the eighties was the BBC Micro, which found its way into the homes of over 1.5 million people by the time it ceased production in 1986. Starting out as an educational tool for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, it soon evolved into a popular games machine (Elite anyone?), allowing you to build and control a wheeled mouse, to being a fully fledged Domesday laser disk archive system. It is also reported that as late as 2004, a BBC Micro was still being used to steer the 42ft radio telescope at Jodrell Bank.

It found more uses than probably any other system of its time and many a computer programmer of today started with BBC Basic, and dare I say, some still use it today.

Research Machines Limited: RML (now known as RM Plc) is a British company formed in 1973 to provide ‘industry standard’ systems to education. They designed and built their own systems which started with the RML 380Z, a CP/M based system contained in ‘industrial’ black metal cases, which proved very popular, especially when they expanded it to include hard disks and networking, also in similar cases. They further enhanced the range with the Link 480Z, a much smaller, plastic cased version with integrated keyboard, soon followed by their Nimbus range of PC compatible systems. They later ventured into laptops and all-in-one PCs.

RM is still in business, but no longer manufacturing their own hardware.

IBM Dominates

IBM soon realises that Microcomputers are threatening their market, so they develop their own Personal Computer and publish much of the specification. Soon this standard is copied by others and PC-compatible computers come to dominate the market

The period sees exiting developments in hardware, but the future of the Personal Computer is led by IBM and Apple.

IBM verses the rest

In the USA the main battle is between IBM and Apple. However, in the UK there is a wider range of computers, especially home computers. The IBM PC has to compete with these and then the PC-compatibles. This meant it was much harder to ‘break in’ to the UK market.

IBM decides it can best win market share by using an Open Architecture to encourage third parties to produce peripherals and software. Arguably this helps other third parties to reverse engineer the system and produce compatibles but also increases the market for such systems and thus IBM could sell more hardware as a result.

Desktops with a Handle

The decreasing size of Personal Computers makes it possible to design machines for carrying between home and work, but in time it also became a valuable tool for those that are ‘on the road’ like service engineers and salesmen, who could take their office with them or have access to technical information.

It also introduced the ‘all-in’one’ concept of PC, screen and keyboard combined into a single case.

Two of the early companies in this field were KeyPro and Osborne, who both made machines with computer screens, keyboards and disk drives in a single case. While they were portable, they were still heavy and power hungry so still needed a mains supply to operate - to supply a battery at this time was impractical as it would have needed a separate and much bigger, heavier case to carry it, and still need charging.

Laptops

As the technology improved and things got smaller the ‘lugable’ PC started to become smaller, lighter much port portable

• LCD Flat-Screens were developed which were less bulky, were lighter, did not need to depth that a CRT screen needed (which limited the screen sizes in the early models, and they used much less power

• Disk drives, processors and other components got smaller and were designed to use lower voltages and much less power.

• Battery technology improved allowing smaller battery cells to store more power, take up less room and weight less.

• Mouse functions could be done with other devices including trackballs, swipe pads, nipples

Now a computer could be the size of a briefcase and with batteries, can even be used while travelling.

PDA - Personal Digital Assistant

In 1983, a pocket calculator that can store a database of addresses first appears.

Other companies start to produce handheld computers with miniature keyboards that can be a calculator or a database and can also be programmed.

In 1992, Apple coins the phrase Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) for the Newton which had a touch sensitive screen and handwriting recognition.

Computers in Everything Mobile

The new century sees digital technology included in all sorts of handheld devices:

Phones, PDAs, portable game players, cameras, TVs, mp3 players, DVD players, Satellite Navigation devices

The improvement in touchscreens, handwriting and speech recognition bring a whole new stream of features.

Memory cards get smaller and capacity increases ten fold allowing more data to be stored, thus allowing improvements in things like camera technology allowing more detail to be captured.