IBM Publishes the First "Book" on the IBM PC

In October 1982, based upon the dated printed on its rear cover, IBM published The Guide to personal computer offerings from IBM. This was an 84-page full color soft cover book that had a published cover price of $3.00. In elaborate detail it explained just about every aspect of the first, basic version of the IBM PC with an Intel 8088 processor, one or two 5.25 inch floppy drives and 40KB RAM. RAM could be expanded up to 320KB. When IBM entered the personal computer market with their open architecture PC they convinced skeptics that their products could reliably do real work. This guide provided a great deal of technical information presented in a user friendly accessible manner. They also used the Charlie Chaplin lookalike to present the material in a friendly unthreatening manner.