Personal Computer

The introduction of the landmark IBM-PC in 1981 was one of the main catalysts of the persona;-computer revolution. Early analysts underestimated the PC's draw--predicting that no more than 80 million would sell by 2000--but at the end of last year, more than a half-billion were in use. * Original IBM Personal Computer (1981) Cost: $4,500 (includes system unit, display, keyboard and printer) Chip:4.77 MHz 8088 microprocessor Memory: 256 K of RAM Storage: 5.

Blackstone Group is weighing a bid for Dell Inc., the computer maker seeking offers to rival the proposed $24.4-billion buyout by its founder and Silver Lake Management, said people with knowledge of the matter. Blackstone may bid as part of a group including other investors, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the process is confidential. The New York private-equity firm hasn't made a decision, said another person. Under the go-shop provision of the Silver Lake merger agreement, Dell's board has through March 22 to seek superior proposals, and can negotiate beyond that date if it receives an offer it deems serious.

Tandon, a maker of computer disk drives based in Chatsworth, announced Monday that it would shift its focus to personal computers and named an IBM manufacturing executive as its president to help direct the company's changeover. Dan H. Wilkie, 42, general manager of IBM's main personal computer plant in Boca Raton, Fla., will become Tandon's president and chief operating officer next Monday.

After struggling for years to remake itself, Dell Inc. has announced it will be taken private in a deal valued at about $24.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, the Round Rock, Texas, company will be acquired by Dell founder and Chief Executive Michael S. Dell and global technology investment firm Silver Lake. Microsoft Corp. will invest $2 billion in the deal, a move the Redmond, Wash., company said it was undertaking to help support "the long-term success of the entire PC ecosystem.

Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., responding to stiff competition in the personal computer market, said Monday that it was cutting the prices of its business and professional notebooks and advanced portable computers. Toshiba's Computer Systems Division, based in Irvine, cut prices as much as 17% on its T6400 advanced portable computers. For example, the price of its top-of-the-line, T6400MM/200 portable computer was cut to $7,999 from $9,599.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based giant said the realignment was made "to increase its focus on new products, customer support and growth opportunities." Three functions--dealer sales, support and operations--are being transferred from the Entry Systems division to the National Distribution division. The marketing function for IBM's PC will continue to be an Entry Systems responsibility. The National Distribution division sells a broad range of products through a variety of reseller channels.

The new computers combine plentiful features with low prices, analysts said, and should put pressure on International Business Machines and makers of IBM PC-compatible computers. Analysts said Tandy's move is a sign that the price war at the low end of the personal computer market is starting to move up the ladder to more sophisticated machines.

The company's new computer called the Unix PC--is a relatively powerful desk-top machine that can accommodate up to nine users. The basic model, with about 512,000 characters of main memory, costs $5,095 and is available now. The Unix PC also has a video screen that can simultaneously display several "windows," or data from separate operations. It also features a "mouse," a hand-held device that allows the user topoint to symbols on the screen that represent a desired function.

Tandon Corp. is to unveil a line of IBM-compatible personal computers today that will be sold in the United States under the Chatsworth company's name. The models, company sources and securities analysts said, will be compatible with IBM's XT and AT models and are similar to ones that Tandon has been selling under its own name in Europe since last fall. Tandon was scheduled to make the announcement at a New York press conference.

Nearly two dozen personal computer systems belonging to high school students in North San Diego County have been seized by FBI agents as part of a federal investigation into the unauthorized "accessing" into a computer data base belonging to a subsidiary of Chase Manhattan Bank. No arrests were made, but an FBI spokesman said the investigation is continuing. Chase Manhattan officials said Wednesday that no money was actually lost or transferred. Interactive Data Corp.

Jack Tramiel, the tough and aggressive Commodore International founder who brought millions of people into the world of personal computers in the late 1970s and early '80s with his low-cost PCs, has died. He was 83. Tramiel, who lived in Monte Sereno, Calif., died Sunday at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto , said his son, Leonard. He had been suffering from congestive heart failure for many years. A Polish-born survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp who began his business career with a typewriter repair shop in the Bronx in the early 1950s, Tramiel (pronounced tra-MELL)

Jacob E. Goldman, the former Xerox chief scientist who created the company's famed Palo Alto Research Center, whose scientists and engineers invented the modern personal computer in the 1970s and developed an array of other pioneering computing technologies, has died. He was 90. Goldman, a resident of Westport, Conn., died Tuesday at a hospital in nearby Stamford after a short illness, said his son, Melvin. A physicist, Goldman had been the head of the research and development laboratory at Ford Motor Co. before joining Xerox, then based in Rochester, N.Y., as chief scientist in late 1967.

Apple Inc. may want to change its mind on the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" question. If the company decides to apply the "PC" label to its own computing devices, it may soon find that it is the world's largest personal computer vendor. It takes a little semantic contortion, but if the iPad tablet - or any tablet - counts as a personal computer, Apple is on track to sell more PCs than computing giants such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. by the middle of next year, research firm Canalys said.

There was a time when Steve Mehta was on his laptop nonstop. Nowadays, he hardly touches it. The 43-year-old attorney uses his tablet computer to highlight legal briefs, take notes for court cases or flip though a digital version of the California probate code. "The laptop is so limited," Mehta he said as he stood against the wall of a crammed Los Angeles subway car, watching an episode of "Modern Family" on his tablet. "But everything you want to do, this thing does. " So long, laptop?

Christie's, the high-end auction house, is selling off one of Appledom's rarest relics: an original Apple-1 personal computer, famously designed and built in a parental garage by company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. The Apple-1 machine, for which Christie's will open the bidding Nov. 23, is expected to fetch $160,000 to $240,000. The lot comes with the original components of the Apple-1, made at a time when owning a "personal computer" meant ordering a box of electronic parts and assembling them with a soldering iron.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest maker of personal computers and printers, said Monday that its board had approved an additional $10 billion for share repurchases. The move adds to $4.9 billion already available and will help offset dilution from employee stock purchases, HP said. The company will repurchase at least $3 billion in shares in the fourth quarter ending in October, interim Chief Executive Cathie Lesjak said in a statement. The Palo Alto company is in a bidding war with Dell Inc. for data storage provider 3Par Inc. of Fremont.

For years, Yamaha Corp. was content to be known as a maker of motorcycles, pianos, guitars, keyboards and other musical equipment. But now the Japanese company's Yamaha Corp. of America subsidiary in Buena Park wants everyone to know that it has the know-how to blend music and personal computers. Since 1973, the company has manufactured semiconductor chips for its musical instruments. Since 1986, it has become a leading producer of chips that enhance the sound of PCs.

When Ray Ozzie, the creator of Lotus Notes, was hired by Bill Gates to be Microsoft Corp.'s chief technical officer five years ago, he warned his new colleagues that the software giant needed to adapt to the Internet — or else. But the company that brought personal computing to the masses in the 1980s and '90s has gone hitless in recent years, and last week it was surpassed by longtime rival Apple Inc. as the world's biggest technology company in stock market value. With no competitive smart phone or tablet computer — and with its Bing search engine slow to gain traction — Microsoft has struggled to keep pace with surging rivals Apple and Google Inc. The company last week also announced the departure of two veteran executives who led efforts to develop its forthcoming smart phones.

Acer Inc., the world's third-largest maker of personal computers, will expand into televisions and electronic books within five years as the PC industry slows, founder Stan Shih said. "The PC actually is a mature industry," Shih, 64, said in an interview in his Taipei office. "PC extending to TV, of course, there's room." The Taiwanese company will pit itself against Samsung Electronics Co. and Kindle-maker Amazon.com Inc., which lead the markets for TVs and digital readers.