The development of the personal computer is considered one of the most important technological advancements/inventions of the last century. Today, a brand-new computer costs just a few hundred dollars and has capabilities that in the late 1960s and 1970s - when movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Alien” were the biggest draws at the box office - were the realm of science fiction. The most basic model of an HP 3000 sold for $95,000 in 1972, the equivalent of slightly over half a million in today’s dollars, but not all personal computers released in the early 1970s cost as much.

Once wildly expensive and inaccessible but to the very rich, computers today are one of the most ubiquitous technologies worldwide.