???? – 1995retired
Apple IIe Card
“It taught old software to speak Mac, then quietly slipped out the classroom door.”
“The computer left the room, but its ports stayed in every room since.”
The Personal System/2 arrived in 1987 as IBM's second generation of personal computers, officially replacing the PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible. People loved it for the innovations packed inside: the 16550 UART, the 1440 KB 3.5-inch floppy format, 72-pin SIMMs, the PS/2 mouse and keyboard port, and VGA. Nearly all of those ideas escaped the machine and became standards across the broader PC compatible market.
IBM had hoped its proprietary Micro Channel architecture would recapture control of the PC market, but most major manufacturers balked at the licensing terms, particularly the per-machine royalties — leaving higher-end models oddly incompatible with the very standards IBM itself had created. The OS/2 operating system, announced alongside the PS/2, was meant to be its primary OS, yet at first shipment only PC DOS 3.3
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“It taught old software to speak Mac, then quietly slipped out the classroom door.”
“64 kilobytes, 17 million homes, and one very long goodbye.”
“Six slots, one stout tower, and the last laugh over the fast young Quadras”