PERSONAL COMPUTERS

Personal computers (PC) were developed during the 1970s and were intended for use by small businesses and in the home. No established industrial computer company, like IBM, Burroughs, or Honeywell believed in 1975 that there would be any market for a PC. The earliest commercial PCs were credited to the efforts of Stephen Jobs (1955—) and Stephen Wozniak (1950—), who began their own PC company, Apple Computers, in 1976, building a microchip-based computer for small businesses and particularly for home use. These computers represented simplicity of design and function, and they were easily used by non-professionals. By 1977 the personal computer industry moved quickly, with Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack aggressively entering the "home computer market."

The PC was made possible largely because of the miniaturization of electronic parts and the ability to reliably mass produce many parts of the computer, such as the silicon chip, the integrated circuit board, and the microprocessor. The personal computer evolved (in the 1960s and 1970s) from large single-function devices like industrial data processors to smaller single-function devices like pocket calculators. With smaller hardware and more diverse software, the PC of the late 1970s became consolidated into desktop sized, multi-function devices. They now provide international communications, word-processing capabilities, as well as the other educational, recreational, and personal functions associated with modern computers in homes and businesses.