Pc
A stylised illustration of a modern personal computerA personal computer (PC) is usually a microcomputer whose price, size, and capabilities make it suitable for personal usage. The term was popularized by Apple Computer with the Apple II in the late-1970s and early-1980s, and afterwards by IBM with the IBM PC.
History
Main article: History of computing hardware (1960s-present)Time share "terminals" to central computers were sometimes used before the advent of the PC, such as the smart terminal — televideo ASCII character mode terminal pictured here. Mainframes and large 'minicomputers'
Before their advent in the late-1970s to the early-1980s, the only computers possibly available, if the user was privileged, were "computer-terminal based" architectures owned by large institutions. In these, the technology was called "computer time share systems", and used minicomputers and mainframe computers. These central computer systems frequently required large rooms — roughly, a handball-court-sized room could hold two to three small minicomputers and its associated peripherals, each housed in cabinets much the size of three refrigerators side by side (with blinking lights and tape drives). PC Magazine.