The IBM Personal Computer was introduced in 1981. The very first version included only 16k of RAM and single sided disk drives. This was quickly changed to 64k of RAM and double sided drives. The original price of the IBM PC in 1983 was $1864 (Consumer Reports, p.475).
Processor: The IBM PC uses an Intel 8088 microprocessor, which is capable of addressing 1Meg. of RAM.
RAM: The very first PC came with 16K of RAM. This was quickly replaced with a version that could have from 64K to 256K of RAM on the motherboard. The PC/XT could have up to 512K of RAM on the motherboard. Both machines could have up to 640K of RAM through the use of expansion cards.
Keyboard: The IBM keyboard is a fairly nice 83 key typewriter style keyboard. The IBM keyboard includes all ASCII characters, as well as 10 function keys.
Video: The IBM PC has it's video system on a separate expansion card. The owner could select either a high quality monochrome monitor or an RGB or composite color monitor. All monitor choices include 80 column by 25 row text resolution.
Storage: The original IBM PC has a cassette interface connector to connect with a standard portable cassette recorder. This feature was dropped from the PC/XT and all following machines. Most IBM PCs have a floppy drive controller and one or more drives. The machines originally came with 5.25" double density drives, but both 3.5" and 5.25" low and high density drives can be used with the correct controller board. Hard drives are supported with the use of a hard drive controller board.