Topic summary
PC architecture
Extracted from the Wikipedia article IBM PC compatible.
The IBM PC compatible today
The term "IBM PC compatible" is not commonly used presently because many current mainstream desktop and laptop computers are based on the PC architecture, and IBM no longer makes PCs. The competing hardware architectures have either been discontinued or, like the Amiga, have been relegated to niche, enthusiast markets. The most successful exception is Apple's Macintosh platform, which has used non-Intel processors for the majority of its existence. Macintosh was initially based on the Motorola 68000 series, then transitioned to the PowerPC architecture in 1994 before transitioning to Intel processors beginning in 2006. Until the transition to the internally developed ARM-based Apple silicon in 2020, Macs shared the same system architecture as their Wintel counterparts and could boot Microsoft Windows without a DOS Compatibility Card.