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In the beginning, computers were large, expensive, complex and proprietary. The move towards commodity computing began when [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] introduced the [[PDP-8]] in 1965. This was a computer that was relatively small and inexpensive enough that a department could purchase one without convening a meeting of the board of directors. The entire [[minicomputer]] industry sprang up to supply the demand for 'small' computers like the PDP-8. Unfortunately, each of the many different brands of minicomputers had to stand on their own because there was no software and very little hardware compatibility between them.
When the first general purpose [[microprocessor]] was introduced in 1974 it immediately began chipping away at the low end of the computer market, replacing [[embedded
This process accelerated in 1977 with the introduction of the first commodity - like computer, the [[Apple II]]. With the development of the [[Visicalc]] application in 1979, microcomputers broke out of the factory and began entering office suites in large quantities, but still through the back door.
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As the speed of [[Ethernet]] increases to 10 gigabits, the differences between [[multiprocessing|multiprocessor]] systems based on loosely coupled commodity microcomputers and those based on tightly coupled proprietary supermicro designs (like the IBM p-series) will continue to narrow and will eventually disappear.
When 10 gigabit Ethernet becomes standard equipment in commodity microcomputer servers, multi-processor [[Computer cluster|cluster]] or [[Grid computing|grid]] systems based on off-the-shelf commodity microcomputers and Ethernet switches will take over more and more computing tasks that can currently be performed only by high- end models of proprietary supermicros like the IBM p-series, further eroding the viability of the supermicro industry.
== Commodity PCs ==
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