Since most folks are right-handed, having the drives on the right is pretty
reasonable. The physical design was allegedly patterened after the
pple-][ whose market IBM coveted. The concept of easily installable
expansion cards on an open bus with I/O connectors in the rear did evolve
there, though not in Apple's products. Several companies saw the light and
put connectors on the back of their Apple computers using a separate
bracket. IBM saw the problem that caused once your computer got rather
full, since each card so equipped would require, essentially, two slots.
The Apple-][ had its supply on the left and had no internal drives. I don't
remember whether the Apple III had internal drives.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Max Eskin <max82_at_surfree.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, July 01, 1999 8:10 PM
Subject: PC form factor
>Hi,
>I'm wondering: was the IBM PC the first machine with PSU in the rear
>right, drives in the front right, motherboard in rear left, or did they
>borrow this design from someone else?
>
>--Max Eskin (max82_at_surfree.com)
> http://scivault.hypermart.net: Ignorance is Impotence - Knowledge is
Power
>
Received on Thu Jul 01 1999 - 21:31:24 BST