IBM PC
product on 7 shows · 14 statements across 10 episodes · said 27 times in 10 episodes since 2019
Acquired 20 
the a16z Podcast 3 
Founders 2 
Cheeky Pint 1 
How I Built This 1 
We Live to Build 
David Senra
Mentions by year, every show
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Acquired 20the a16z Podcast 3Founders 2How I Built This 1Cheeky Pint 1
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2024 19 mentions in 3 episodes 6 per episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →
14 statements about IBM PC, every show
Shifflett: Led first IBM PC rollout across HHS within one year
“In about a year, I literally single-handedly, I had a tech team to put the machines together, but I literally rolled out the first IBM PC desktops to the entire Department of Health and Human Services.”
IBM manufactured none of the core components in its original PC
“And inside the IBM PC, None of the chips were made by IBM, right? And none of the disk drives were made by IBM. The power supply wasn't made by IBM.”
Sinofsky: AI is currently in the 64KB IBM PC era
“We're at the 64 K IBM PC era of the microcomputer.”
Rosenthal: IBM PC's x86 standardization shifted computing leadership to Intel
“Well, then the architecture standardizes on x 86 and boom, there goes the whole next generation of computing away from TI over to Intel.”
IBM mandated the Project Chess team to ship a PC within one year
“IBM leadership tells this team in Boca They have to ship the PC to customers within one year.”
IBM sold 500,000 PCs within two years of launch
“They sell 13,500 IBM PCs within the first couple months after they announce it. Over the next two years, they sell half a million of them.”
Apple Could Have Achieved Dominant PC Power Had the Apple III Succeeded
“I think if they hadn't completely flubbed the Mac three, I think they might've ended up in a very attractive power position because they did own the stack and they did own the operating system and they didn't yet own the processor, but they could eventually.”
Michael Dell realized the $3,000 IBM PC contained just $600 in parts
“When you took apart this IBM PC that was selling for about 3000 dollars, as far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
Belkin's first breakthrough order was 100 printer cables for Carnegie Mellon
“And then I think we ran our first ad in Computer Dealer magazine, And we got an order for a hundred pieces. It was one of our bigger, biggest orders ever for cables that went from the parallel port from an IBM PC to a, to an Epson printer, and they bought a hu…”
IBM ignored peripheral cables due to production limits and printer fragmentation
“One was IBM had their hands full just making enough PCs, and it feels like it was probably years. There were just not enough of them getting built. And they had no idea what printer any given small business or consumer was going to choose, and most of those pr…”
A Taiwanese manufacturer offered printer cables cheaper than Belkin's production cost
“It was a parallel printer cable to go from the IBM PC to a parallel printer, and I asked him what it would cost to buy, and the price he quoted was less expensive than what it cost us to build that same item ourselves.”
Michael Dell Realized the $3,000 IBM PC Contained Only $600 in Parts
“And so when you took apart this IBM PC, you That was selling for about 3000 dollars. As far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
The original IBM PC was unprotected and legally reverse-engineered by Compaq
“And I knew that the IBM PC Was relatively unprotected. It would be a challenge, but it could be reverse engineered legally, and we could make our computer run the same software.”