Not only did large computers fall as a share of the market, but total sales of large and midrange computers also dropped from $55 billion in 1990 to $49 billion in 1995. Meanwhile, sales of workstations and PCs grew from $16 billion to $108 billion. (more…)
The de facto standards that allowed standardization of components were set when IBM introduced its PC in 1981 with an open architecture. Most important, IBM contracted with two upstarts, Microsoft and Intel, to develop the critical operating system and microprocessors for the IBM PC, and allowed them to license their technologies to other companies. (more…)
This congruence of company and national interests was a latter day realization of Charles Wilson’s (Chairman of GM in the 1940s) claim that ‘‘What’s good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.’’ The issue of competing in computers was fairly simple when what was good for IBM was good for the United States. (more…)
From the time of its invention in the 1940s until the late 1970s, a computer was a large, foreboding piece of equipment located in a glass house, maintained and operated by a team of specialists who spoke strange languages like FORTRAN and COBOL. (more…)
