It`s 25 years since IBM announced its first PCs IN AUGUST 1981, computing took a new leap forward with the launch of `s first personal computer series for home and business.

The PC was launched following around a year of secretive planning and development by a team of 12 people headed by Don Estridge. The planning included meetings with chairman .

While other manufacturers had released personal computers before 1981, they did not ship on a large scale. IBM had also been manufacturing desktop computers and `portable computers` such as the IBM 5100 for use in office environments for some time, but none were as small or affordable as the PC launched in 1981. IBM coined the phrase `PC` when it launched the new range, and is credited with making PCs accessible to people on an unprecedented scale.

The new IBM PC could not only process information faster than those earlier machines but it could hook up to the home TV set, play games, process text and "store more words than a fat cookbook".

"This is the computer for just about everyone who has ever wanted a personal system at the office, on the university campus or at home," said C B Rogers Jr, IBM vice president and group executive, General Business Group, in launching the new machine at a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria ballroom in New York City.

The IBM 5150 PCs came in three versions, the cheapest of which was a $1 565 home computer, which included Microsoft`s BASIC programming lan-guage and featured a 4.7Mhz processor and 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256 kilobytes. The PC came with one or two 160k floppy disk drives and an optional colour monitor.

People were impressed.

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