IBM 5150 is launched and the Blaster Worm spreads. All on today’s On This Day from TEST Huddle.
1981- IBM 5150
In Boca Raton in Florida, IBM announces the IBM Personal Computer 5150. The new machine features 16KB RAM (64KB standard, expandable to 256KB), a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 CPU containing 29,000 transistors, 40KB ROM, as well as a Tandon brand 5.25-inch floppy drives (160KB capacity). The display is a mono display with an optional cassette drive. The machine goes on sale for $1,565. Over sixty-five thousand units will be sold in the first four months with one hundred thousand orders will be taken by Christmas. The software that comes with the machine includes Microsoft BASIC, MS-DOS, VisiCalc, UCSD Pascal and more. The popularity of the PC will mean most other machines helped established the dominance of the Microsoft operating system.
2003 – The Blaster Worm Spreads
Also known as the Lovesan worm, the blaster worm spreads rapidly by exploiting Microsoft Windows. It was called the Love San worm “I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN”. The virus is first described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026 and later in MS03-039.
