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On August 12, 1981, IBM entered the personal computer market with its announcement of the Personal Computer (PC). Much to IBM's surprise, the business community, traditionally hesitant to adopt microcomputers, responded with overwhelming enthusiasm. By the close of 1981, IBM had sold tens of thousands of its PCs. The success of the IBM PC in the marketplace, coupled with its informal adoption as the de facto industry standard for business desktop computers, opened up the market for PC-compatible hardware and software.

Possibly the earliest IBM PC-compatible computers were manufactured by Compaq Computer Corp. in the U.S. (the Compaq Portable) and Dynalogic Info-Tech. in Canada (the Hyperion). These two companies were soon followed by a fast growing group of other manufacturers who were cloning not only the IBM PC hardware but also its case and documentation. J.L.S. Computers founded by Joe Loren Sutherland in 1983 was one such company. His best-known IBM PC clone--the J.L.S. OBM-100--was functionally identical to the IBM PC, could be interfaced with PC-compatible peripherals and run all of the software developed for the IBM computer. Sutherland's IBM PC-compatible motherboards, packed in IBM-look-alike cases, began appearing not only in Ontario but also beyond, with diverse model and company name stickers affixed to the cases. Manufacturers such as Aftek and HAL Computer were among those which built their products around Sutherland's clones of the IBM PC motherboard. READ MORE...

New at YUCoM

In 2024, YUCoM and the Canada Science and Technology Museum (Ingenium) initiated a collaborative project to preserve a trend-setting Canadian computer system from the past — the AES-90 programmable word processor. The project is focused on reconstructing the system's design and recovering and preserving its text editing and system software. The reconstructed technical information and recovered software will be used to develop an emulator, a computer program that simulates the operations of the AES-90 on a modern computer with a high degree of historical accuracy. This emulator will enable, among other functions, non-invasive research of the AES-90 hardware and software and the creation of future interactive exhibits featuring the AES-90.  READ MORE...