The First “Multimedia PC” (PCGH-Retro, October 08)

…1991: In contrast to other computer systems such as Commodore’s Amiga, the PC is not really capable of multimedia; the display of videos in particular overwhelms it and its DOS. A software industry working group called the “Multimedia PC Marketing Council”, which includes Microsoft, Dell and Creative Labs, is set to change this. On October 8, 1991, it published the minimum requirements for the multimedia PC, MPC for short: in order to be allowed to bear the MPC logo, such a computer needed a 386SX processor with 16 MHz, 2 MiByte RAM, a VGA card, and Windows 3.0 with multimedia expansion and above all a CD-ROM drive. Two years later, the second MPC specification followed, which included a 486 and a double-speed CD drive; The last stage followed in 1996 with MPC Level 3 and the requirement for a Pentium, Windows 3.11 and MPEG-1 compatibility. The project was then buried – the name MPC and the associated logo never caught on. Of course, PCs are now multimedia-capable.