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MITS Altair 8800
Although it may not look like what we have today, this is actually a personal computer. Capable of computing numbers and outputting them by using LED's, this computer sold for $650. This computer is nothing as compared to the computers today. This computer ran at 2 MHz, and had 256 bytes of RAM. -
IBM 5100
This is considered the world's first "portable" computer, even though it weighed nearly five times as much as the average laptop does today. It was very expensive as compared to the standard computer, and even computers today at $19,975 with 64K RAM. -
The Apple II
This computer was the first of its kind to have a monitor, but this monitor could only produce six colors maximum, and the unit itself came pre-stored with the BASIC programming language, and it could have been bought in the pre-built form, or just the circuit board. The computer sold for $1298 with 4K RAM, and $2638 with 48K RAM. It ran at 1 MHz. -
Osborne 1
This was the first true portaable computer, which folded for protection, and had a handle for carrying. It was relatively cheap at $1,795 -
DEC Rainbow 100
This PC was from what was once one of the greatest computer companies (Digital Equipment Corporation) in 1982. It sold for $3,245, and ran at 4 MHz with a 64K- 256K RAM. It had an MS-DOS 2.11 operating system. Even though it has the title "Rainbow", the most basic model had a monochrome monitor. DEC came out with three other models (100A, 100B, and 100+). -
Apple Macintosh Powerbook
The Apple Macintosh Powerbook was a better-designed version of the Macintosh Portable 5120/5126 (Sept. 1989). It sold at $2,299 to $4,599 with a 25MHz processor, and had a maximum of 8 MB hardrive. It was originally designed by Sony, but later, it was designed by Apple. It was one of the most compact and portable PC laptops of it's time (Until the Titanium PowerBook came out in 2001). It sold over 100,000 in the first three months.
