Everyone knows that “PC” is short for “Personal Computer”, but not everyone can agree on what counts as a PC and what doesn’t. It turns out that the term “PC” is packaged with more nuance than you might have imagined!
The Broad Meaning of PC
Virtually all words have multiple meanings, depending on the context in which you use them and what you mean when you use them. Dictionaries record how we use words and how their meaning changes over time. In other words, they to describe the living meaning of words instead of prescribe what a word “must” mean.
The broadest meaning of “Personal Computer” includes any computer designed for personal use. In general, “computer” in this sense means a computer for general use. One that can run any type of application and be programmed in infinite ways. So while a pocket calculator is certainly a computer in the strictest sense, it is not the type of computer that “pc” refers to.
Under this broad umbrella, a smartphone certainly counts as a PC. There is no fundamental difference between it and a typical laptop computer. However, there is an argument that an Android tablet is a personal computer while an iPad is not.
Why? Because on an iPad, you don’t have the freedom to use software you like, only software approved by Apple. You can install anything you want on an Android tablet. Although Apple advertises modern iPads as personal computers, they blur the line between a personal computer and a computing device, albeit because of an artificial limitation.
Undoubtedly, any Mac, Linux or Windows system is certainly a personal computer in the broad sense. Still, most people wouldn’t think of referring to an Android smartphone as a PC, despite it fitting neatly into the broad sense of the word.
The IBM PC
Some confusion around the term “PC” is due to the IBM PC. In 1981, IBM released the Model 5150, which was just another microcomputer. “Microcomputer” is a term that refers to small computers that you can use on a desk. Other contemporary microcomputers were the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro.
IBM has pushed the term “PC” to differentiate the IBM PC from other microcomputers and larger business machines in its own product line. IBM’s design was cloned, creating a huge open market. While IBM may not have been thrilled with the fact that so-called “IBM-compatible” computers flooded the market at the time, this is why a PC is called a PC today, unlike all the other names used for computers that are suitable for personal use.
RELATED: 40 years later: what was it like to use an IBM PC in 1981?
The “PC” in “Game PC”
People refer to “PC Gaming” in the context of the IBM PC and its legacy. Any gaming PC can trace its family tree in a straight line to the first IBM PCs. They all use “x86” CPU architecture. In other words, the same processor language that is at the heart of the IBM PC is still at the core of modern gaming PCs.
When a game developer says he’s releasing a game “for PC,” it always means he’s releasing it for an x86 computer. It almost always means the software is for Microsoft Windows, but it’s important to remember that “PC” in this case refers to the hardware architecture, not the operating system. Linux, Windows, and countless other x86 operating systems are all PC operating systems.
The “PC” in “Mac Vs. PC”
When Apple or Apple users talk about “Mac vs PC”, it refers to the differences between Macs and IBM PCs. Apple Mac computers competed directly with all other microcomputers, including IBM PCs, and had a distinct architecture.
The first Macs used Motorola 68000 CPUs and then switched to IBM PowerPC, which in a somewhat ironic twist is another IBM architecture completely different from the IBM PC x86 architecture.
After PowerPC, Apple moved to Intel CPUs and the x86 architecture. Suddenly, the “Mac vs. PC” debate didn’t make much sense. In a practical sense, Macs were PCs, and you could install Windows and run the same apps as any PC.
However, Intel Macs still didn’t have the open hardware support of typical PCs, with Apple’s Mac firmware being substantially different from standard PC firmware. We like to include Intel Macs in the PC family, but there will always be some debate about whether Intel Macs are really PCs.
The point is a bit unclear now, though, as Apple has left Intel behind for its own Apple Silicon hardware, based on the ARM architecture. Apple Silicon Macs are definitely not PCs in the IBM compatible sense!
RELATED: What are ARM CPUs and will they replace x86 (Intel)?
What about x86 game consoles?
Another interesting wrinkle to the question of what a “PC” really is comes from modern game consoles. Microsoft and Sony moved to x86-based consoles with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. To be fair, the first Xbox was an x86 system, so the Xbox One was a return to form for Microsoft’s consoles rather than a radical one. shift.
The Xbox series and PlayStation 5 consoles kept this change in x86 hardware, so these devices are custom PCs. The core architecture and hardware are no different from what you would find in a typical laptop or desktop PC. In the case of Xbox consoles, even the software is essentially Microsoft Windows. So why are these “consoles” and not “PCs”?
It is true that the core architecture of these devices is PC architecture, but the firmware is locked and these systems contain proprietary hardware components for security and performance reasons. They are different in many ways, whether you think of them as “consolidated” PCs or PC derivatives. You cannot install any software or operating system or install drivers for hardware that is not approved by the console maker.
Consoles can be considered PCs in terms of their hardware architecture, but they certainly don’t count as PCs in general as they have more in common with computing devices like iPads.
It has nothing to do with form factor
Whether something is a PC or not, in the broad sense or in the sense of hardware architecture, has nothing to do with form factors. An x86 laptop and an x86 desktop computer are both PCs. They share the same hardware architecture, run the same software and adhere to open industry standards.
This is why a portable computer like the Steam Deck is a PC, but a console like the Nintendo Switch is not. The Steam Deck is an x86 IBM-compatible, open-platform personal computer. Anything you can do with a large gaming PC desktop or a gaming laptop, you can do with a device like the Steam Deck, Aya Neo or GPD Win computers.
While the meaning of words can and will change over time, for now someone who says “PC” probably means a computer that a 1981 IBM PC can call its ancestor.
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