IBM PC compatible

An IBM PC compatible is a personal computer designed to run software and peripherals made for the IBM Personal Computer architecture, typically through compatible hardware and firmware.

Intel 8088: A 16-bit microprocessor with an 8-bit external data bus, used in the original IBM PC. The original PC’s processor became the baseline that early compatibles reproduced.
IBM Personal Computer: IBM’s 1981 personal computer, built around an Intel 8088 processor and an open, documented architecture. It supplied the design and software target that compatible computers sought to reproduce.
MS-DOS: A command-line operating system for x86 personal computers, widely used during the 1980s and early 1990s. Running DOS programs was a central practical test of PC compatibility.
IBM PS/2 Model 50: A 1987 IBM PS/2 desktop computer using Micro Channel Architecture and an Intel 80286 processor. Its proprietary expansion bus embodied IBM’s attempt to replace the open PC-compatible standard.
IBM PC BIOS: Firmware that initializes IBM PC hardware and provides low-level routines for software. Matching its interfaces let compatible machines run software expecting the original PC.
IBM PC ROM: Read-only memory in the IBM PC containing its BIOS and other firmware routines. Its code was the key obstacle for companies seeking legally defensible compatibility.
Lotus 1-2-3: A spreadsheet program for IBM PC-compatible computers, first released in 1983. Its popularity helped make compatibility valuable to business-computer buyers.
Apple Macintosh: A family of personal computers introduced by Apple in 1984, distinguished by a graphical interface and tightly integrated hardware and software. The Macintosh offered a competing platform rather than reproducing IBM PC hardware interfaces.
ISA bus: A computer expansion bus introduced with the IBM PC and later extended for wider data paths. Its card interface allowed compatible machines to accept a large ecosystem of PC peripherals.
Compaq Portable: A 1983 portable computer that ran IBM PC software using a clean-room reimplementation of the IBM BIOS. It demonstrated that BIOS compatibility could be achieved without copying IBM’s ROM code.

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