personal computer children being taught how to use a notebook personal computer an older 1990sera desktop personal computers crt monitor keyboard and mouse are visible in the background an artists depiction of a 2000sera personal computer of the desktop style which includes a metal case with the computing components a display monitor and a keyboard mouse not shown a personal computer pc is a multipurpose computer whose size capabilities and price make it feasible for individual use pcs are intended to be operated directly by an end user rather than by a computer expert or technician computer timesharing models that were typically used with larger more expensive minicomputer and mainframe systems to enable them be used by many people at the same time are not used with pcs early computer owners in the 1960s invariably institutional or corporate had to write their own programs to do any useful work with the machines in the 2010s personal computer users have access to a wide range of commercial software freeofcharge software freeware and free and opensource software which are provided in readytorun form software for personal computers is typically developed and distributed independently from the hardware or os manufacturers since the early 1990s microsoft operating systems and intel hardware have dominated much of the personal computer market first with msdos and then with windows alternatives to microsofts windows operating systems occupy a minority share of the industry these include apples macos and free and opensource unixlike operating systems such as linux advanced micro devices amd provides the main alternative to intels processors terminology pc is an initialism for personal computer the ibm personal computer incorporated the designation in its model name but ibm has not used this brand for many years it is sometimes useful especially in a marketing context to distinguish personal computers of the ibm personal computer family from personal computers made by other manufacturers for example pc is used in contrast with mac an apple macintosh computer this sense of the word is used in the get a mac advertisement campaign that ran between 2006 and 2009 as well as its rival im a pc campaign that appeared in 2008 since none of these apple products were mainframes or timesharing systems they were all personal computers and not pc brand computers history history of personal computers commodore pet in 1983 at american museum of science and energy an early example of a personal computer brain in the history of computing there were many examples of computers designed to be used by one person as opposed to terminals connected to mainframe computers it took a while for computers to be developed that meet the modern definition of a personal computers one that is designed for one person is easy to use and is cheap enough for an individual to buy using the narrow definition of operated by one person the first personal computer was the eniac which became operational in 1946 it did not meet further definitions of affordable or easy to use the bendix g15 of 1956 was intended for use without an operating staff and several hundred were made it was too costly to be personally owned however an example of an early singleuser computer was the lgp30 created in 1956 by stan frankel and used for science and engineering as well as basic data processing the italian programma 101 was a programmable calculator produced by olivetti in 1964 introduced at the 1965 new york worlds fair the programma 101 was a printing programmable calculator the soviet mir series of computers was developed from 1965 to 1969 in a group headed by victor glushkov it was designed as a relatively smallscale computer for use in engineering and scientific applications and contained a hardware implementation of a highlevel programming language another innovative feature for that time was the user interface combining a keyboard with a monitor and light pen for correcting texts and drawing on screen in what was later to be called the mother of all demos sri researcher douglas engelbart in 1968 gave a preview of what would become the staples of daily working life in the 21st century email hypertext word processing video conferencing and the mouse the demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe timesharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time by the early 1970s people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for singleperson use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person early personal computersgenerally called microcomputerswere often sold in a kit form and in limited volumes and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians minimal programming was done with toggle switches to enter instructions and output was provided by front panel lamps practical use required adding peripherals such as keyboards computer displays disk drives and printers micral n was the earliest commercial nonkit microcomputer based on a microprocessor the intel 8008 it was built starting in 1972 and few hundred units were sold this had been preceded by the datapoint 2200 in 1970 for which the intel 8008 had been commissioned though not accepted for use the cpu design implemented in the datapoint 2200 became the basis for x86 architecture in 1973 the ibm los gatos scientific center developed a portable computer prototype called scamp special computer apl machine portable based on the ibm palm processor with a philips compact cassette drive small crt and full function keyboard scamp emulated an ibm 1130 minicomputer in order to run apl1130 another desktop portable apl machine the mcm70 was demonstrated in 1973 and shipped in 1974 it used the intel 8008 processor a seminal step in personal computing was the 1973 xerox alto developed at xeroxs palo alto research center parc it had a graphical user interface gui which later served as inspiration for apples macintosh and microsofts windows operating system the alto was a demonstration project not commercialized as the parts were too expensive to be affordable also in 1973 hewlett packard introduced fully basic programmable microcomputers that fit entirely on top of a desk including a keyboard a small oneline display and printer the wang 2200 microcomputer of 1973 had a fullsize cathode ray tube crt and cassette tape storage these were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses the introduction of the microprocessor a single chip with all the circuitry that formerly occupied large cabinets led to the proliferation of personal computers after 1975 altair 8800 computer 1974 saw the introduction of what is considered by many to be the first true personal computer the altair 8800 created by micro instrumentation and telemetry systems mits in 1976 steve jobs and steve wozniak sold the apple i computer circuit board which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips the apple i computer differed from the other kitstyle hobby computers of era at the request of paul terrell owner of the byte shop jobs and wozniak were given their first purchase order for 50 apple i computers only if the computers were assembled and tested and not a kit computer terrell wanted to have computers to sell to a wide range of users not just experienced electronics hobbyists who had the soldering skills to assemble a computer kit the apple i as delivered was still technically a kit computer as it did not have a power supply case or keyboard when it was delivered to the byte shop the first successfully mass marketed personal computer to be announced was the commodore pet after being revealed in january 1977 however it was backordered and not available until later that year and the trs80 from tandy corporation tandy radio shack following in august 1977 which sold over 100000 units during its lifetime together these 3 machines were referred to as the 1977 trinity massmarket readyassembled computers had arrived and allowed a wider range of people to use computers focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware ibm 5150 released in 1981 the 8bit pmd 85 personal computer produced in 19851990 by the tesla company in the former socialist czechoslovakia this computer was produced locally in pieany due to a lack of foreign currency with which to buy systems from the west during the early 1980s home computers were further developed for household use with software for personal productivity programming and games they typically could be used with a television already in the home as the computer display with lowdetail blocky graphics and a limited color range and text about 40 characters wide by 25 characters tall sinclair research in the same year the nec pc98 was introduced which was a very popular personal computer that sold in more than 18 million units somewhat larger and more expensive systems for example running cpm or sometimes a home computer with additional interfaces and devices although still lowcost compared with minicomputers and mainframes were aimed at office and small business use typically using high resolution monitors capable of at least 80 column text display and often no graphical or color drawing capability workstations were characterized by highperformance processors and graphics displays with largecapacity local disk storage networking capability and running under a multitasking operating system eventually due to the influence of the ibm pc on the personal computer market personal computers and home computers lost any technical distinction business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound and home computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers massmarket computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of a few years before even local area networking originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals became a standard feature of personal computers used at home in 1982 the computer was named machine of the year by time magazine in the 2010s several companies such as hewlettpackard and sony sold off their pc and laptop divisions as a result the personal computer was declared dead several times during this period types stationary workstation sun sparcstation1 from the early 1990s with a 25mhz risc processor workstation a workstation is a highend personal computer designed for technical mathematical or scientific applications intended primarily to be used by one person at a time they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multiuser operating systems workstations are used for tasks such as computeraided design drafting and modeling computationintensive scientific and engineering calculations image processing architectural modeling and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects desktop computer desktop computer a dell optiplex desktop computer before the widespread use of pcs a computer that could fit on a desk was remarkably small leading to the desktop nomenclature more recently the phrase usually indicates a particular style of computer case desktop computers come in a variety of styles ranging from large vertical tower cases to small models which can be tucked behind an lcd monitor the term desktop typically refers to a computer with a vertically aligned computer case that holds the systems hardware components such as the motherboard processor chip other internal operating parts desktop computers have an external monitor with a display screen and an external keyboard which are plugged into usb ports on the back of the computer case desktop computers are popular for home and business computing applications as they leave space on the desk for multiple monitors gaming computer gaming computer a gaming computer is a standard desktop computer that typically has highperformance hardware such as a more powerful video card processor and memory in order to handle the requirements of demanding video games which are often simply called pc games a number of companies such as alienware manufacture prebuilt gaming computers and companies such as razer and logitech market mice keyboards and headsets geared toward gamers allinone further information allinone computer allinone pcs also known as singleunit pcs are a subtype of desktop computer that combines the monitor and processor within a single unit a separate keyboard and mouse are standard input devices with some monitors including touchscreen capability the processor and other working components are typically reduced in size relative to standard desktops located behind the monitor and configured similarly to laptops nettop nettop a subtype of desktops called nettops was introduced by intel in february 2008 characterized by low cost and lean functionality a similar subtype of laptops or notebooks is the netbook described below the product line features the new intel atom processor which specifically enables nettops to consume less power and fit into small enclosures home theater pc home theater pc an antec fusion v2 home theater pc with a keyboard placed on top of it a home theater pc htpc is a convergence device that combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder it is connected to a tv set or an appropriately sized computer display and is often used as a digital photo viewer music and video player tv receiver and digital video recorder htpcs are also referred to as media center systems or media servers the general goal in a htpc is usually to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box more recently htpcs gained the ability to connect to services providing ondemand movies and tv shows htpcs can be purchased preconfigured with the required hardware and software needed to add television programming to the pc or can be cobbled together out of discrete components what is commonly done with software support from mythtv windows media center gbpvr sagetv famulent or linuxmce portable laptop laptop a laptop computer a laptop computer also called a notebook is similar to a desktop but is designed for portability usually all of the hardware and interfaces needed to operate a laptop such as the graphics card audio devices or usb ports previously parallel and serial ports are built into a single unit laptops usually have clamshell design in which the keyboard and computer components are on one panel and a flat display screen on a second panel which is hinged to the first panel the laptop is opened for use and closed for transport closing the laptop also protects the screen and keyboard during transportation laptops have both a power cable that can be plugged in and highcapacity batteries that can power the device enhancing its portability once the battery charge is depleted it will have to be recharged through a power outlet in the interests of saving power weight and space laptop graphics cards are in many cases integrated into the cpu or chipset and use system ram resulting in reduced graphics performance when compared to an equivalent desktop machine for this reason desktop computers are usually preferred over laptops for gaming purposes one of the drawbacks of laptops is that due to the size and configuration of components usually relatively little can be done to upgrade the overall computer from its original design or add components internal upgrades are either not manufacturerrecommended can damage the laptop if done with poor care or knowledge or in some cases impossible making the desktop pc more modular and upgradable desktop pcs typically have a case that has extra empty space inside where users can install new components some internal upgrades to laptops such as memory and hard disk drive upgrades are often easily performed while a display or keyboard upgrade is usually difficult or impossible just like desktops laptops also have the same input and output ports for connecting to a wide variety of devices including external displays mice cameras storage devices and keyboards which may be attached externally through usb ports and other less common ports such as external video laptops are also a little more expensive compared to desktops as the miniaturized components for laptops themselves are expensive a subtype of notebooks called subnotebook has most of the features of a standard laptop computer but with smaller physical dimensions subnotebooks are larger than handheld computers and usually run full versions of desktop or laptop operating systems ultramobile pcs umpc are usually considered subnotebooks or more specifically subnotebook tablet pcs which are described below netbooks are sometimes considered to belong to this category though they are sometimes separated into a category of their own see below desktop replacement desktop replacement computer an acer aspire desktop replacement laptop a desktop replacement computer dtr is a personal computer that provides the full capabilities of a desktop computer while remaining mobile such computers are often actually larger bulkier laptops because of their increased size this class of computers usually includes more powerful components and a larger display than generally found in smaller portable computers and can have a relatively limited battery capacity or none at all in some cases some use a limited range of desktop components to provide better performance at the expense of battery life desktop replacement computers are sometimes called desknotes as a portmanteau of words desktop and notebook though the term is also applied to desktop replacement computers in general netbook netbook an hp netbook netbooks also called mini notebooks or subnotebooks are a subgroup of laptops initially the primary defining characteristic of netbooks was the lack of an optical disc drive requiring it to be a separate external device this has become less important as flash memory devices have gradually increased in capacity replacing the writable optical disc eg cdrw dvdrw as a transportable storage medium at their inception in late 2007as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost tablet tablet computer hp compaq tablet pc with rotatingremovable keyboard a tablet is a type of portable pc that deemphasizes the use of traditional input devices such as a mouse or keyboard by using a touchscreen display which can be controlled using either a stylus pen or finger some tablets may use a hybrid or convertible design offering a keyboard that can either be removed as an attachment or a screen that can be rotated and folded directly over top the keyboard some tablets may run a traditional pc operating system such as windows or linux microsoft attempted to enter the tablet market in 2002 with its microsoft tablet pc specifications for tablets and convertible laptops running windows xp however microsofts early attempts were overshadowed by the release of apples ipad following in its footsteps most tablets now run mobile operating systems such as android and ios in response microsoft built its windows 8 operating system to better accommodate these new touchoriented devices many tablet computers have usb ports to which a keyboard or mouse can be connected smartphone smartphone the lg g4 a typical smartphone smartphones are practically the same devices as tablet computers the only differences between them being that smartphones are generally smaller than tablets always have cellular integration and while modern smartphones almost always do may not always have a slate form factor ultramobile pc ultramobile pc a samsung q1 ultra umpc the ultramobile pc ump is a specification for smallconfiguration tablet pcs it was developed as a joint development exercise by microsoft intel and samsung among others current umpcs typically feature the windows xp windows vista windows7 or linux operating system and lowvoltage intel atom or via c7m processors pocket pc pocket pc an o2 pocket pc a pocket pc is a hardware specification for a handheldsized computer personal digital assistant pda that runs the microsoft windows mobile operating system it may have the capability to run an alternative operating system like netbsd or linux pocket pcs have many of the capabilities of desktop pcs numerous applications are available for handhelds adhering to the microsoft pocket pc specification many of which are freeware microsoftcompliant pocket pcs can also be used with many other addons like gps receivers barcode readers rfid readers and cameras in 2007 with the release of windows mobile 6 microsoft dropped the name pocket pc in favor of a new naming scheme devices without an integrated phone are called windows mobile classic instead of pocket pc while devices with an integrated phone and a touch screen are called windows mobile professional hardware an exploded view of a personal computer and peripherals some of which are optional scannercpu microprocessorexpansion cards graphics cards etcmemory rampower supplyoptical disc drivestorage hard disk or ssdmotherboardspeakersmonitorsystem softwareapplication softwarekeyboardmouseexternal hard diskprinter personal computer hardware computer hardware is a comprehensive term for all physical parts of a computer as distinguished from the data it contains or operates on and the software that provides instructions for the hardware to accomplish tasks the boundary between hardware and software has become blurred with the existence of firmware that is software built into the hardware for example a 2010era lcd display screen contains a small computer inside massmarket consumer computers use highly standardized components and so are simple for an end user to assemble into a working system most 2010sera computers only require users to plug in the power supply monitor and other cables a typical desktop computer consists of a computer case or tower a metal chassis that holds the power supply motherboard hard disk drive and often an optical disc drive most towers have empty space where users can add additional components external devices such as a computer monitor or visual display unit keyboard and a pointing device mouse are usually found in a personal computer the motherboard connects all processor memory and peripheral devices together the ram graphics card and processor are in most cases mounted directly onto the motherboard the central processing unit microprocessor chip plugs into a cpu socket while the memory modules plug into corresponding memory sockets some motherboards have the video display adapter sound and other peripherals integrated onto the motherboard while others use expansion slots for graphics cards network cards or other io devices the graphics card or sound card may employ a break out box to keep the analog parts away from the electromagnetic radiation inside the computer case disk drives which provide mass storage are connected to the motherboard with one cable and to the power supply through another cable usually disk drives are mounted in the same case as the motherboard expansion chassis are also made for additional disk storage for large amounts of data a tape drive can be used or extra hard disks can be put together in an external case the keyboard and the mouse are external devices plugged into the computer through connectors on an io panel on the back of the computer case the monitor is also connected to the inputoutput io panel either through an onboard port on the motherboard or a port on the graphics card capabilities of the personal computers hardware can sometimes be extended by the addition of expansion cards connected via an expansion bus standard peripheral buses often used for adding expansion cards in personal computers include pci pci express pcie and agp a highspeed pci bus dedicated to graphics adapters found in older computers most modern personal computers have multiple physical pci express expansion slots with some of the having pci slots as well computer case computer case an empty atx case lying on its side a computer case is an enclosure that contains the main components of a computer they are usually constructed from steel or aluminum combined with plastic although other materials such as wood and tempered glass have been used for specialized units cases are available in different sizes and shapes the size and shape of a computer case are usually determined by the configuration of the motherboard that it is designed to accommodate since this is the largest and most central component of most computers the most popular style for desktop computers is atx although microatx and similar layouts became very popular for a variety of uses companies like shuttle inc and aopen have popularized small cases for which flexatx is the most common motherboard size in the 1990s desktop computer cases were larger and taller than 2010era computer cases power supply unit power supply unit computer computer power supply unit with top cover removed the power supply unit psu converts generalpurpose mains ac electricity to direct current dc for the other components of the computer the rated output capacity of a psu should usually be about 40 greater than the calculated system power consumption needs to be obtained by adding up all the system components this protects against overloading the supply and guards against performance degradation power supply capacities range from 250 to 2000 watts for desktop computers processor central processing unit amd athlon 64 x2 cpu the central processing unit cpu is a part of a computer that executes instructions of a software program in newer pcs the cpu contains over a million transistors in one integrated circuit chip called the microprocessor in most cases the processor plugs directly into the motherboard the processor chip may have a heat sink and a fan attached for cooling a large number of computers today manufactured by intel amd or via technologies motherboard motherboard a motherboard without processor memory and expansion cards cables the motherboard also referred to as system board or main board is the primary circuit board within a personal computer and other major system components plug directly into it or via a cable a motherboard contains a microprocessor the cpu supporting circuitry mostly integrated circuits that provide the interface between memory and inputoutput peripheral circuits main memory and facilities for initial setup of the computer immediately after poweron often called boot firmware or in ibm pc compatible computers a bios or uefi in many portable and embedded personal computers the motherboard houses nearly all of the pcs core components often a motherboard will also contain one or more peripheral buses and physical connectors for expansion purposes sometimes a secondary daughter board is connected to the motherboard to provide further expandability or to satisfy space constraints main memory primary storage 1gb ddr sdram pc3200 module a pcs main memory is a fast primary storage device that is directly accessible by the cpu and is used to store the currently executing program and immediately needed data pcs use semiconductor randomaccess memory ram of various kinds such as dram sdram or sram as their primary storage which exact kind is used depends on costperformance issues at any particular time main memory is much faster than mass storage devices like hard disk drives or optical discs but is usually volatile meaning that it does not retain its contents instructions or data in the absence of power and is much more expensive for a given capacity than is most mass storage as a result main memory is generally not suitable for longterm or archival data storage storage drive hard disk drive see also solid state drive a 35 hard drive with the cover removed mass storage devices store programs and data even when the power is off they do require power to perform read and write functions during usage although flash memory has dropped in cost the prevailing form of mass storage in personal computers is still the hard disk drive if the mass storage controller provides additional ports for expandability a pc may also be upgraded by the addition of extra hard disk or optical disc drives for example bdroms dvdrws and various optical disc recorders may all be added by the user to certain pcs standard internal storage device connection interfaces are pata sata and scsi solid state drives ssds are a much faster replacement for traditional mechanical hard disk drives but are also more expensive in terms of cost per gigabyte solid state drives connect using several connectors including sata m2 and u2 some models use the nvme protocol which have vastly improved performance over standard hard disk drives and older ssds that use the older ahci protocol visual display unit visual display unit a visual display unit computer monitor or just display is a piece of electrical equipment usually separate from the computer case which displays visual images without producing a permanent computer record a display device was usually a crt in the 1980s but by the 2000s flat panel displays such as a tft lcd had largely replaced the bulkier heavier crt screens multimonitor setups are quite common in the 2010s as they enable a user to display multiple programs at the same time eg an email inbox and a word processing program the display unit houses an electronic circuitry that generates its picture from signals received from the computer within the computer either integral to the motherboard or plugged into it as an expansion card there is preprocessing circuitry to convert the microprocessors output data to a format compatible with the display units circuitry the images from computer monitors originally contained only text but as graphical user interfaces emerged and became common they began to display more images and multimedia content the term monitor is also used particularly by technicians in broadcasting television where a picture of the broadcast data is displayed to a highly standardized reference monitor for confidence checking purposes video card video card a gtx 1070 video card the video cardotherwise called a graphics card graphics adapter or video adapterprocesses the graphics output from the motherboard and transmits it to the display it is an essential part of modern multimediaenriched computing graphics circuitry may be integrated with the motherboard or may be on cards istalled in pci agp or pci express slots when the ibm pc was introduced most existing businessoriented personal computers used textonly display adapters and had no graphics capability home computers at that time had graphics compatible with television signals but with low resolution owing to the limited memory available to the eightbit processors available at the time keyboard computer keyboard a model m ibm computer keyboard from the early 1980s commonly called the clicky keyboard due to its buckling spring key spring design which gives the keyboard its iconic click sound with each keystroke a keyboard is an arrangement of buttons that each correspond to a function letter or number they are the primary devices used for inputting text in most cases they contain an array of keys specifically organized with the corresponding letters numbers and functions printed or engraved on the button they are generally designed around an operators language and many different versions for different languages exist in english the most common layout is the qwerty layout which was originally used in typewriters they have evolved over time and have been modified for use in computers with the addition of function keys number keys arrow keys and keys specific to an operating system often specific functions can be achieved by pressing multiple keys at once or in succession such as inputting characters with accents or opening a task manager programs use keyboard shortcuts very differently and all use different keyboard shortcuts for different program specific operations such as refreshing a web page in a web browser or selecting all text in a word processor in addition to the alphabetic keys found on a typewriter computer keyboards typically have a numeric keyboard and a row of function keys and special keys such as ctrl alt del and esc many keyboards include led lights under the keys that increase the visibility of the letters or symbols in dark environments mouse computer mouse a selection of computer mice built between 1986 and 2007 a computer mouse is a small handheld device that users hold and slide across a flat surface pointing at various elements of a graphical user interface with an onscreen cursor and selecting and moving objects using the mouse buttons mice may be plugged into a dedicated mouse socket or a usb port or may be connected wirelessly mice include one or more buttons to allow a user to signal the computer to carry out some operation such as selecting an item from a menu of choices on the screen a mouse may have a scroll wheel to allow users to move the displayed image the scroll wheel can also be pressed down and used as a third button some mouse wheels may be tilted from side to side to allow sideways scrolling different programs make use of these functions differently and may scroll horizontally by default with the scroll wheel open different menus with different buttons etc these functions may be also userdefined through software utilities mechanical mice used a ball which drove pulse generators to detect movement along northsouth or eastwest axies optical mice use a special mouse pad with a printed grid to allow detection of motion or else use an imaging chip that allows detection of motion on almost any opaque surface other components a proper ergonomic design of a personal computer workplace is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries which can develop over time and can lead to longterm disability all computers require either fixed or removable storage for their operating system programs and usergenerated material early home computers used compact audio cassettes for file storage these were at the time a very low cost storage solution but were displaced by floppy disk drives when manufacturing costs dropped by the mid1980s initially the 525inch and 35inch floppy drives were the principal forms of removable storage for backup of user files and distribution of software as memory sizes increased the capacity of the floppy did not keep pace the zip drive and other highercapacity removable media were introduced but never became as prevalent as the floppy drive by the late 1990s the optical drive in cd and later dvd and bluray disc forms became the main method for software distribution and writeable media provided means for data backup and file interchange as a result floppy drives became uncommon in desktop personal computers since about 2000 and were dropped from many laptop systems even earlier a second generation of tape recorders was provided when videocassette recorders were pressed into service as backup media for larger disk drives all these systems were less reliable and slower than purposebuilt magnetic tape drives such tape drives were uncommon in consumertype personal computers but were a necessity in business or industrial use interchange of data such as photographs from digital cameras is greatly expedited by installation of a card reader which is often compatible with several forms of flash memory devices it is usually faster and more convenient to move large amounts of data by removing the card from the mobile device instead of communicating with the mobile device through a usb interface a usb flash drive performs much of the data transfer and backup functions formerly done with floppy drives zip disks and other devices mainstream operating systems for personal computers provide builtin support for usb flash drives allowing interchange even between computers with different processors and operating systems the compact size and lack of moving parts or dirtsensitive media combined with low cost and high capacity have made usb flash drives a popular and useful accessory for any personal computer user the operating system can be located on any storage but is typically installed on a hard disk or solidstate drive a live cd represents the concept of running an operating system directly from a cd while this is slow compared to storing the operating system on a hard disk drive it is typically used for installation of operating systems demonstrations system recovery or other special purposes large flash memory is currently more expensive than hard disk drives of similar size as of mid2014 but are starting to appear in laptop computers because of their low weight small size and low power requirements computer communications involve internal modem cards modems network adapter cards and routers common peripherals and adapter cards include headsets joysticks microphones printers scanners sound adapter cards as a separate card rather than located on the motherboard speakers and webcams software computer software a screenshot of the openofficeorg writer software computer software is any kind of computer program procedure or documentation that performs some task on a computer system the term includes application software such as word processors that perform productive tasks for users system software such as operating systems that interface with computer hardware to provide the necessary services for application software and middleware that controls and coordinates distributed systems software applications are common for word processing internet browsing internet faxing email and other digital messaging multimedia playback playing of computer game and computer programming the user may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs but is not necessarily interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer therefore most software written primarily for personal computers tends to be designed with simplicity of use or userfriendliness in mind however the software industry continuously provide a wide range of new products for use in personal computers targeted at both the expert and the nonexpert user operating system operating systemsee also usage share of operating systems an operating system os manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources an operating system processes system data and user input and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the system an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory prioritizing system requests controlling input and output devices facilitating computer networking and managing files common contemporary desktop operating systems are microsoft windows macos linux solaris and freebsd windows macos and linux all have server and personal variants with the exception of microsoft windows the designs of each of them were inspired by or directly inherited from the unix operating system which was developed at bell labs beginning in the late 1960s and spawned the development of numerous free and proprietary operating systems microsoft windows microsoft windows microsoft windows is the collective brand name of several operating systems made by microsoft which as of 2015 are installed on pcs built by hp dell and lenovo the three remaining high volume manufacturers the most recent client and server versions of windows are windows 10 and windows server 2016 macos macos macos formerly osx is a line of operating systems developed marketed and sold by apple inc macos is the successor to the original mac os which had been apples primary operating system since 1984 macos is a unixbased graphical operating system and snow leopard leopard lion mountain lion mavericks yosemite el capitan and sierra are its version codenames the most recent version of macos is codenamed macos mojave linux linux a linux distribution running kde plasma workspaces 4 linux is a family of unixlike computer operating systems linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development typically all underlying source code can be freely modified used and redistributed by anyone known for its use in servers with the lamp application stack as one of prominent examples linux is supported by corporations such as dell hewlettpackard ibm novell oracle corporation red hat canonical ltd and sun microsystems it is used as an operating system for a wide variety of computer hardware including desktop computers netbooks supercomputers several arcade games and embedded devices such as mobile phones portable media players routers and stage lighting systems applications this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed april 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message application software a screenshot of gimp which is a raster graphics editor generally a computer user uses application software to carry out a specific task the power plant merely generates electricity not itself of any real use until harnessed to an application like the electric light that performs a service that benefits the user typical examples of software applications are word processors spreadsheets and media players multiple applications bundled together as a package are sometimes referred to as an application suite microsoft office and libreoffice the separate applications in a suite usually have a user interface that has some commonality making it easier for the user to learn and use each application often they may have some capability to interact with each other in ways beneficial to the user for example a spreadsheet might be able to be embedded in a word processor document even though it had been created in the separate spreadsheet application enduser development tailors systems to meet the users specific needs userwritten software include spreadsheet templates word processor macros scientific simulations graphics and animation scripts even email filters are a kind of user software users create this software themselves and often overlook how important it is gaming pc gaming is popular among the highend pc market according to an april 2014 market analysis gaming platforms like steam software uplay origin and gogcom as well as competitive e sports titles like league of legends are largely responsible for pc systems overtaking console revenue in 2013 sales market share see also market share of personal computer vendors personal computers worldwide in million distinguished by developed and developing world in 2001 125 million personal computers were shipped in comparison to 48000 in 1977 the global personal computer shipments were 3509 million units in 2010 3083 million units in 2009 and 3022 million units in 2008 the shipments were 264 million units in the year 2007 according to isuppli as of june 2008 the number of personal computers in use worldwide hit one billion based on international data corporation idc data for q2 2011 for the first time china surpassed us in pc shipments by 185 million and 177 million respectively this trend reflects the rising of emerging markets as well as the relative stagnation of mature regions in the developed world there has been a vendor tradition to keep adding functions to maintain high prices of personal computers however since the introduction of the one laptop per child foundation and its lowcost xo1 laptop the computing industry started to pursue the price too although introduced only one year earlier there were 14 million netbooks sold in 2008 in 2011 deloitte consulting firm predicted that smartphones and tablet computers as computing devices would surpass the pcs sales in august 2013 credit suisse published research findings that attributed around 75 of the operating profit share of the pc industry to microsoft operating system and intel semiconductors in the second quarter of 2018 pc sales grew for the first time since the first quarter of 2012 according to research firm gartner the growth mainly came from the business market while the consumer market experienced decline average selling price selling prices of personal computers steadily declined due to lower costs of production and manufacture while the capabilities of computers increased in 1975 an altair kit sold for only around us400 but required customers to solder components into circuit boards peripherals required to interact with the system in alphanumeric form instead of blinking lights would add another 2000 and the resultant system was only of use to hobbyists at their introduction in 1981 the us1795 price of the osborne 1 and its competitor kaypro was considered an attractive price point these systems had textonly displays and only floppy disks for storage by 1982 michael dell observed that a personal computer system selling at retail for about 3000 us was made of components that cost the dealer about 600 typical gross margin on a computer unit was around 1000 for microsoft windows systems the average selling price asp showed a decline in 20082009 possibly due to lowcost netbooks drawing 569 for desktop computers and 689 for laptops at us retail in august 2008 in 2009 asp had further fallen to 533 for desktops and to 602 for notebooks by january and to 540 and 560 in february environmental impact computer recycling external costs of environmental impact are not fully included in the selling price of personal computers this impact differs between desktop computers and laptops personal computers have become a large contributor to the 50 million tons of discarded electronic waste that is being generated annually according to the united nations environment programme to address the electronic waste issue affecting developing countries and the environment extended producer responsibility epr acts have been implemented in various countries and states organizations such as the silicon valley toxics coalition basel action network toxics link india scope and greenpeace have contributed to these efforts in the absence of comprehensive national legislation or regulation on the export and import of electronic waste the silicon valley toxics coalition and ban basel action network teamed up with 32 electronic recyclers in the us and canada to create an esteward program for the orderly disposal of manufacturers and customers electronic waste the silicon valley toxics coalition founded the electronics takeback coalition a coalition that advocates for the production of environmentally friendly products the takeback coalition works with policy makers recyclers and smart businesses to get manufacturers to take full responsibility of their products there are organizations opposing epr regulation such as the reason foundation they see flaws in two principal tenets of epr first epr relies on the idea that if the manufacturers have to pay for environmental harm they will adapt their practices second epr assumes the current design practices are environmentally inefficient the reason foundation claims that manufacturers naturally move toward reduced material and energy use computer science portal electronics portal computer virus desktop replacement computer ewaste information and communication technologies for development list of computer system manufacturers market share of personal computer vendors personal computer museum pocketsized palmtop handheld computing device portable computer public computer quiet pc list of home computers notes accidental empires how the boys of silicon valley make their millions battle foreign competition and still cant get a date robert x cringely addisonwesley publishing 1992 isbn0201570327 pc magazine vol 2 no 6 november 1983 scamp the missing link in the pcs past wikimedia commons has media related to personal computer wikiversity has learning resources about introduction to computerspersonal look up personal computer in wiktionary the free dictionary wikiquote has quotations related to personal computer how stuff works pages dissecting a pc how pcs work how to upgrade your computer how to build a computer vtecomputer sizesclasses of computersmicrocomputerpersonalcomputerstationary workstation desktop home personal supercomputer portable tabletop smart tv interactive kiosk game arcade cabinet system board home console microconsole sff nettop plug smart speaker mobilelaptop desktop replacement 2in1 subnotebook netbook smartbook ultrabook ultramobile pc tablet ultramobile pc 2in1 phablet tabletop handheld handheld pc palmtop pc pocket computer pda electronic organizer mobile phone feature phone smartphone phablet pmp ereader handheld game console portablemobile data terminal calculator scientific programmable graphing wearable digital wristwatch calculator watch smartwatch smartglasses smart ring midrange server minicomputer supermini large super mainframe minisuper others microcontroller nanocomputer singleboard computer smartdust wireless sensor network authority control gnd 41155336 