Highlights From Our Collection - September 2010

IBM PC 5150, 1981

On August 12, 1981, IBM announced the release of its first IBM Personal Computer, the IBM 5150. The IBM PC was an immediate success and quickly became the industry standard. The system revolutionized personal computing. It provided an affordable system for home, office and school and sold for as little as $1,565. Two decades earlier, an IBM computer often cost as much as $9 million and required an air-conditioned quarter-acre of space and a staff of 60 people to keep it fully loaded with instructions. The new IBM PC could not only process information faster than those earlier machines, but it could hook up to the home TV set, play games, process text and harbor more words than a fat cookbook. Donated by IBM, Colorado.

IBM Boulder Plant

The original Boulder IBM plant manufactured parts for one of IBM’s first computers, the System/360. During its first 20 years, the Boulder facility developed and manufactured many of the company’s products for computers, photocopiers and printers. In 1986, the Boulder campus made a strategic switch from manufacturing to client services and consulting operations. In 2008, IBM opened a new 115,000 square foot data center which is considered the “greenest data center in North America.”

Photos courtesy of IBM & Boulder County Business Report.

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