IBM PC celebrates 25th anniversary

On boot DOS would ask for the date and then drop you to an A> prompt. There was no colon and there was no C> because the original PC wouldn't support hard drives or sub directories.

The PC also didn't have any sort of BIOS configuration utility. The system was configured by setting up a couple of sets of dip switches on the motherboard. One switch indicated whether you had a monochrome or color card installed. The one next to it indicated the default video mode (40 or 80 column.) Others set memory size.

Reprinted with permission from Vintage-Computer.com