1983 Micro prices (was Re: The Origins of DOS)

[Fred Cisin]

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006, Adrian Graham wrote:
> I wish I could easily scan this glued-spine A3 magazine I've got in front of
> me, perhaps I'll precis it instead :)

WHAT magazine?

> The IBM PC was launched in 01/83 at ukp2390 and has captured 20% of the US
> market.

The IBM PC (5150) was launched in the USA in AUGUST 1981.
By '83, the XT had taken over, and the AT was being almost ready to
release.

What this implies is that the PC was several years delayed in UK.

> The System unit includes an enhanced version of Microsoft BASIC-80
> Interpreter without diskette functions.
> 'The IBM PC is a rather conservative design and is 2 or 3 years out of date.

number of years is quite subjective -3 < N < 5

> However, it's also true that any design flaws will have been ironed out
> since it has been available in the US for so long'

hardly.

> OS support is interesting: MS DOS, CP/M86, UCSD-P
> Expansion: Provision for 1x160k Floppy, cassette

The PC (5150) ALWAYS had space for TWO floppy drives.
The XT had space for one, with the other bay occupied by a 10M drive.