IBM Model 5150, developed under the code name “Chess” but better known as the IBM Personal Computer, is released, including the original PC edition of Microsoft’s MS-DOS. This not only marks the ascendency of Microsoft as a maker of operating systems, but a sudden shift away from a multitude of other computer platforms (especially the Apple II series) toward the IBM PC. Within a year, the first IBM PC-compatible machine will arrive on the market, but while that begins to cost IBM its hardware market share, it popularizes the Intel-8088-based architecture and makes it the standard of the computer industry.
