The above photo is from a 1984 photo of a worker at IBM in Böblingen. It’s a fairly typical image from then (I know, I was there at that time, though in a different place.) Most of the computer equipment in that room is associated with the mainframe that he’s working on: tape drives (back right), storage (front right), network (front left), consoles (middle). The one exception is the IBM PC behind him.
1984 was the year Apple introduces Macintosh. 1984 is the start of the personal computer revolution that would sweep all that mainframe technology aside. And while the Mac was important in the PC revolution, the IBM PC was just as important.
For more evidence on how much things were changing in 1984, I highly highly recommend this piece from PC Mag, 1984 edition. People in offices were grappling with the heavy desire for IBM PCs in the corporate environment, and some places were aiming to have a PC on every desk! Things we take for granted now were just being implemented for the first time then. Even new things like working from home!
P.S. I thought of that when I heard the IBM campus at Böblingen is being phased out.
P.S.S. IKEA is currently selling a version of that table, here (the BAGGBODA).
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