The future of personal computing changed forever with the launch of the Intel-powered IBM PC on August 12, 1981. The PC’s platform was the beginning of an entire ecosystem of compatible hardware and software that had never existed in personal computing before but would come to define the industry and allow personal computers to realize their potential as individual productivity tools. An Intel processor — the 8088, a variant of the 8086 — served as the central processing unit for the revolutionary platform, laying the groundwork for Intel to chart the course of personal computing for decades to come.
Intel introduced the 8086 microprocessor in 1978. Completed in just 18 months, the 8086 was a game changer for several reasons: its design allowed for much more demanding and flexible applications than its predecessors, its architecture served as the template on which future chips would be built from that point forward and it was Intel's first processor to contain microcode.
Moreover, Intel developed a wide array of supporting products and development tools that would allow clients to optimize their implementation of the processor. To convey the advantages of these offerings, Intel developed “Operation Crush,” a pioneering effort in solutions-based marketing. Operation Crush emphasized how Intel’s development aids, its willingness to provide ongoing product support and its industry leading quality, reliability and service all worked together to offer clients a holistic solution to their problems. The campaign was tremendously successful and led to almost 2,500 design wins, including one of the most consequential in Intel’s history: the IBM PC.
In 1980, Earl Whetstone, then an Intel field sales engineer, caught wind of an opportunity in Florida. Philip Donald “Don” Estridge, an IBM engineer, had received IBM’s permission to pursue outside vendors to supply the processors for a new product. Estridge couldn’t tell Whetstone, but he and his team were working against a challenging one-year deadline to develop the first IBM personal computer. Estridge was confident the product could be an enduring winner, but only if he could get the right components — his one-year mandate meant he could only use third-party supplied processors that were already available and had proven their capability. When Whetstone, adhering to the tenets of Operation Crush, emphasized to Estridge not only the 8086 family’s technical capabilities, but all of the ways that Intel would support IBM in implementing it — including the company’s commitment to on-time delivery and its readiness to support its processors over multiple generations — Estridge knew he had found his supplier.
Even after IBM agreed to purchase Intel’s processors, IBM remained very secretive about the project, refusing to disclose what it was using Intel’s processors to create even as it asked for Intel’s help in the development process. According to Whestone:
“When we went in to provide technical support, they’d have our technical people on one side of black curtain and theirs on the other side, with their prototype product. We’d ask questions; they’d tell us what was happening and we’d have to try to solve the problem literally in the dark. If we were lucky, they’d let us reach a hand through the curtain and grope around a bit to try to figure out what the problem was.”
Some people at Intel deduced what IBM was working on, but they worked hard to honor their client’s desire for secrecy. Dave House, general manager of Intel’s microprocessor and peripheral operations, recalled,
“It was proprietary information and we couldn’t announce anything for four or five months…. [So] we kept the Crush program going and toughed it out, all the time wanting to tell the world about the IBM win.”
As it happened, the IBM win would prove bigger than anyone could have anticipated anyway.
The IBM PC — technically known as the model 5150 — was not just a successful personal computer, it was the beginning of a new standard platform for personal computing that countless companies would adopt for their own PCs, and which would bring the personal computer’s revolutionary impact into focus. In 1982 Time magazine declared the IBM PC the “Machine of the Year” in lieu of declaring a Person of the Year.
Neither Intel nor IBM had known how important their collaboration on the IBM PC would be. They were focused on more immediate concerns. IBM wanted to develop a platform that would give it a foothold in a burgeoning but highly competitive industry, and turned to the supplier it determined it could best rely on to achieve that goal. Intel, for its part, sought to honor that trust by providing IBM the combination of top-quality hardware and continuing product support that differentiated it from its competition. As it happened, their two approaches dovetailed synergistically, with their shared commitment to generating the best possible product combining to create a new industry standard that profoundly reshaped the landscape of personal computing.