When you mention the word "technology," most people think about computers. Virtually every facet of our lives has some computerized component. The appliances in our homes have microprocessors built into them, as do our televisions. Even our cars have computers. But the computer that everyone thinks of first is typically the personalcomputer , or PC.
A PC is a general-purpose tool built around a microprocessor. It has lots of different parts -- including memory, a hard disk, a modem, and more -- that work together. "General purpose" means that you can do many different things with a PC. You can use it to type documents, send e-mail, browse the Internet and play games.
PCs trace their history back to the 1970s, when a man named Ed Roberts began to sell computer kits based on a microprocessor chip designed by Intel. Roberts called his computer the Altair 8800 and sold the unassembled kits for $395. Popular Electronics ran a story about the kid in its January 1975 issue, and to the surprise of just about everyone, the kits became an instant hit and the era of the personal computer began [source: The Computer History Project].
A few years later, the dynamic duo of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak unleashed the Apple II computer on the world. From that point on, the personal computer really began to take off. Other manufacturers followed suit, and soon there were computers from Commodore, Atari and Texas Instruments. Not long after the debut of the Apple II, IBM got into the personal computer game
