After the PC

Is the M1 Mac a PC? That is, is the new Macbook a personal computer?

To answer that question, let's take a brief trip through the history of computing devices.

Mainframes were the first commercially viable electronic computing devices. They were large and consisted of a processing unit and a few peripherals. The CPU was the most important feature.

Minicomputers followed mainframes, and had an important difference: They had terminals as peripherals. The most important feature was not the CPU but the number of terminals.

PCs were different from minicomputers in that they had integrated video and and integrated keyboard. They did not have terminals. In this sense, M1 Macs are PCs.

Yet in another sense, M1 Macs are something different: They cannot be modified.

IBM PCs were designed for modification. The IBM PC had slots for accessory cards. The information for those slots was available. Other manufacturers could design and sell accessory cards. Consumers could open the computer and add hardware. They could pick their operating system (IBM offered DOS, CP/M-86, and UCSD p-System).

The openness of the IBM PC was somewhat unusual. Apple II (Apple ][) computers were not openable. Macs were not openable (you needed a special tool). Other computers of the era were typically built in a way that discouraged modifications.

The IBM PC set the standard for personal computers, and that standard was "able to be opened and modified".

The M1 Macs are systems on a chip. The hardware cannot be modified. The CPU, memory, disk (well, let's call it "storage", to use the old mainframe-era term) are all fixed. Nothing can be replaced or upgraded.

In this sense, the M1 Mac is not a PC. (Of course, if it is not a PC, then what do we call it? We need a name. "System-on-a-chip" is too long, "SoC" sounds like "sock" and that won't do, either.)

I suspect that the folks at Apple will be happy to refer to their products with a term other than "PC". Apple fans, too. But I don't have a suitable, generic, term. Apple folks might suggest the term "Mac", as in "I have a Mac in my backpack", but the term "Mac" is not generic. (Unless Apple is willing to let the term be generic. If so, when I carry my SoC Chromebook, I can still say "I have a Mac in my backpack." I doubt Apple would be happy with that.)

Perhaps the closest thing to the new Apple M1 Macs is something so old that it predates the IBM PC: The electronic calculator.

Available in the mid-1970s, electronic calculators were quite popular. Small and yet capable of numeric computations, they were useful for any number of people. Like the Apple M1 Mac, they were designed to remain unopened by the user (except perhaps to replace batteries) and they were not modifiable.

So perhaps the Apple M1 Macbooks are descendants of those disco-era calculators.

* * * * *

I am somewhat saddened by the idea that personal computers have evolved into calculators, that PCs are not modifiable. I gained a lot of experience with computers by modifying them: adding memory, changing disk drives, or installing new operating systems.

A parallel change occurred in the automobile industry. In the 1950s, lots of people bought cars and tinkered with them. They replaced tires and shock absorbers, adjusted carburetors, installed superchargers and turbochargers, and replaced exhaust pipes. But over time, automobiles become more complex and more computerized, and now very few people get involved with their cars. (There are some enthusiastic car-hackers, but they are few in number.)

We lost something with that change. We lost the camaraderie of learning together, of car clubs and amateur competitions.

We lost the same thing with the change in PCs, from open, modifiable systems to closed, optimized boxes.