Word: pc
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...least not right away. IBM, seeking perhaps to protect sales of its highly popular PC and XT business computers, deliberately limited the power of the PCjr. The company made it difficult for users to add extra memory or disk drives, and it chose a circuitry design that made the computer run slower than comparable machines. The most criticized feature was the Chiclets-style keyboard that was unsuitable for heavy-duty typing and thus reduced the appeal of the machine for word processing or extensive record keeping...
Despite its belated success, the PCjr still has a few problems. It can run only some 40% of the programs written for the PC, and new software for the home and education markets has been developed slowly. Moreover, in boosting the power of the Junior to make it more attractive to experienced computer users, IBM has made it harder for beginners to handle. For example, plugging in more than one memory-expansion module or peripheral device calls for a tangle of cables and bricklike power-supply boxes, each of which costs extra. In addition, the machine in its various configurations...
...result, buyers who do comparison shopping must select their computers on the basis of increasingly esoteric technical specifications. IBM alone sells seven basic variations on its bestselling model, ranging from the low-cost PCjr to the top-of-the-line IBM PC AT. To distinguish between these machines, consumers have to measure memory in kilobytes and disc storage in megabytes. To understand the pros and cons of IBM-compatible computers built by AT&T, Compaq or Hewlett-Packard, they must learn to identify silicon chips by name and measure their speeds in millions of cycles per second...
...consumer, choosing between a Mac and an IBM PC means choosing between two fundamentally different philosophies of computing, a decision that many first-time buyers may feel ill-equipped to make. IBM's machines represent business-oriented computer technology-dependable but somewhat hard to use. The Mac, with its flashy graphics and hand-held "mouse" control system, is Apple's attempt to make a machine that even a computerphobe could learn to love...
...also had troubles with the rumor mills. The company was badly stung last year when its new PCjr could not live up to expectations. Computer Retail News, a trade tabloid, now reports that a new version of IBM's popular PC may be released within the next month...