The introduction of the 386 family has brought about , and is still bringing about , and is still bringing about , revolutionary changes in the ways that we use PCs , but much of its success is the way that it softened this revolution. At many stages in the history of computing a revolution in computing power has come about as users have abandoned their existing hardware and software and adopted new. The first generation of almost practical personal computers were based on the Z80 and an operating system called CP/M . At the time it looked as though the status Quo would last a thousand years but this entire generation of machines was swept away almost overnight when IBM announced the IBM PC in 1981. This was based on a completely different processor , the intel 8088, and a completely new operating system , Ms – Dos . while not perfect this really did offer a performance that allowed personal computing to be taken seriously. Even at the time of its introduction the design of the PC was considered old fashioned and at best conservative – still it resulted in millions of machines being scrapped.
This successful revolutionary change gave rise to the idea that users could be made to change their hardware and software if the benefits were large enough. In practice , and despite the best attempts of IBM and others, this has not force them to throw out their existing hardware and software. now it looks as though the size of the commitment to the PC is so great that all future changes will be a gradual step-by-step evolution . Although it has been extended, the original PC design is still very evident in the highest performance 386/486 based machines . obtainable . There is the argument that we would have reached the current level of computing power much sooner if the Pc architecture had been abandoned and a completely new start made.
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