IBM started with their IBM PC Model 5150 in 1981. The famous IBM PC/XT follows just one year later with a slightly changed mainboard (more RAM, but no cassette port) and very important, with a hard disk drive.

This PC/XT was the father (or mother) of all PCs, although in the early years a lot of Personal Computer were not "IBM PC compatible", think about the wonderful Victor 9000/Sirius, or the Zenith PC series.
But the overwhelming success of the original IBM PC/XT convinced all manufacturers to build "compatible" hardware, at least until Compaq built their first 386 machine.
But this is a different story, I will stop with PC/AT machines, equipped with Intels 80286 CPU, breaking the 640KB/1024KB barrier with an "protected mode" to use "extended memory" (up to 16MB).

<If you look for other 16Bit machines, select always 16bit in upper menu>

Copyright (c) 2005-2014 Peter Dassow. All rights reserved.

peter.dassow@NOSPAM.z80.eu (remove NOSPAM. for a proper mail address)