First Commercial Desktop Computer

The january issue of popular electronics magazine features the altair 8080 described as the world s first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models two computer geeks paul allen and.

First commercial desktop computer.

It was thus an important milestone in computing as soon microsoft windows and the apple macintosh would soon adopt the gui as their user interface making it the new paradigm for personal computing. A desktop computer is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk or table due to its size and power requirements the most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply motherboard a printed circuit board with a microprocessor as the central processing unit cpu memory bus and other electronic components disk storage usually one or. Produced by italian manufacturer olivetti based in ivrea piedmont and invented by the italian engineer pier giorgio perotto the p101 has the main features of large computers of that period. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user rather than by a computer expert or technician unlike large costly minicomputers and mainframes time sharing by many people at the same time is not used with personal computers.

In 1973 xerox parc developed the alto personal computer. The first ibm pc formally known as the ibm model 5150 was based on a 4 77 mhz intel 8088 microprocessor and used microsoft s ms dos operating system. The xerox alto developed at xerox parc in 1973 was the first computer to use a mouse the desktop metaphor and a graphical user interface gui concepts first introduced by douglas engelbart while at international. In 1964 the first desktop computer the programma 101 was unveiled to the public at the new york world s fair.

The univac 1 is the first commercial computer to attract widespread public attention. Although manufactured by remington rand the machine was often mistakenly referred to as the ibm univac univac computers were used in many different applications but utilities insurance companies and the us military were major customers. It was invented by pier giorgio perotto and manufactured by olivetti. Ibm s brand recognition along with a massive marketing campaign ignites the fast growth of the personal computer market with the announcement of its own personal computer pc.

Lisa is the first commercial personal computer with a graphical user interface gui. The first desktop and mass market computer. It was not a commercial product but several thousand units were built and were heavily used at parc as well as other xerox offices and at several universities. The olivetti programma 101 also known as perottina or p101 is one of the first all in one commercial desktop programmable calculators although not the first.

It had a bitmapped screen and was the first computer to demonstrate the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface gui.