Personal computing in the context of End user

"The Mother of All Demos" was a landmark computer demonstration, named retroactively, of developments by Stanford Research Institute's Augmentation Research Center. It was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ACM/IEEE)—Computer Society's Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, by Douglas Engelbart, on December 9, 1968.

The 90-minute live demonstration featured the introduction of a complete computer hardware and software system called the oN-Line System or, more commonly, NLS, which demonstrated for the first time many of the fundamental elements of modern personal computing, including windows, hypertext, graphics, efficient navigation and command input, video conferencing, the computer mouse, word processing, dynamic file linking, revision control, and a collaborative real-time editor.

A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are usually not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for desktop computers that historically did not have or need specific mobile features. This "fine line" distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile, unlike the hardware of the past. Key notabilities blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers, light laptops, and the hybridization of the 2-in-1 PCs.

Mobile operating systems combine features of a desktop computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use, and usually including a wireless inbuilt modem and SIM tray for telephone and data connection. In 2024, approximately 1.22 billion smartphones were sold globally, marking a 7% increase over the previous year and a solid rebound after two consecutive years of declines. Sales in 2012 were 1.56 billion; sales in 2023 were 1.43 billion with 53.32% being Android. Android alone has more sales than the popular desktop operating system Microsoft Windows, and smartphone use (even without tablets) outnumbers desktop use.

A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are usually not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for desktop computers that historically did not have or need specific mobile features. This "fine line" distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile, unlike the hardware of the past. Key factors blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers, light laptops, and the hybridization of the 2-in-1 PCs.

Mobile operating systems combine features of a desktop computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use, and usually including a wireless built-in modem and SIM tray for telephone and data connection. In 2024, approximately 1.22 billion smartphones were sold globally, marking a 7% increase over the previous year and a solid rebound after two consecutive years of declines. Sales in 2012 were 1.56 billion; sales in 2023 were 1.43 billion with 53.32% being Android. Android alone has more sales than the popular desktop operating system Microsoft Windows, and smartphone use (even without tablets) outnumbers desktop use.

In personal computing, a tower unit, or simply a tower, is a form factor of desktop computer case whose height is much greater than its width, thus having the appearance of an upstanding tower block, as opposed to a traditional "pizza box" computer case whose width is greater than its height and appears lying flat.

Compared to a pizza box case, the tower tends to be larger and offers more potential for internal volume for the same desk area occupied, and therefore allows more hardware installation and theoretically better airflow for cooling. Multiple size subclasses of the tower form factor have been established to differentiate their varying sizes, including full-tower, mid-tower, midi-tower, mini-tower, and deskside; these classifications are however nebulously defined and inconsistently applied by different manufacturers.

The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog, first released in 1976; it played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. It was designed to be software-compatible with the Intel 8080, offering a compelling alternative due to its better integration and increased performance. Along with the 8080's seven registers and flags register, the Z80 introduced an alternate register set, two 16-bit index registers, and additional instructions, including bit manipulation and block copy/search.

Originally intended for use in embedded systems like the 8080 was, the Z80's combination of compatibility, affordability, and superior performance led to widespread adoption in video game systems and home computers throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, helping to fuel the personal computing revolution. The Z80 was used in iconic products such as the Osborne 1, Radio Shack TRS-80, ColecoVision, ZX Spectrum, Sega's Master System and the Pac-Man arcade cabinet. In the early 1990s, it was used in portable devices, including the Game Gear and the TI-83 series of graphing calculators.