The PC Predecessor (PCGH Retro, July 28)

…1981: Everyone knows the PC, almost everyone uses it. It became the driving force behind the digital revolution and is now the dominant computer platform, equipped with an x86 processor and Microsoft operating system, just as it was at the very beginning. However, just a month before the first personal computer, on July 28, 1981, IBM released a very similar machine: the System/23 Datamaster, also known as the Model 5322. This small office system already used an Intel processor, giving it shortly afterwards the PC followed suit – however, the Intel 8085 was in System/23, the 8-bit predecessor of the famous 8086/8088. In addition, the Datamaster already contained an integrated tube monitor and two floppy disk drives. This “PC” was one of the smallest and cheapest offered by the mainframe manufacturer, starting at around 9,000 US dollars, and served its developers as training for the IBM PC. Its release a month later rendered the better equipped but much more expensive System/23 largely obsolete – the PC not only swept away the competition, but also its direct predecessor.