Editing Workstation (section)

===Origins and development===
Workstations are older than the first [[personal computer]] (PC).<ref name="baran198902">{{Cite magazine |last=Baran |first=Nick |date=February 1989 |title=Two Worlds Converge |url=https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1989-02_OCR/page/n284/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2024-10-08 |magazine=BYTE |pages=229–233}}</ref> The first computer that might qualify as a workstation is the [[IBM 1620]], a small scientific computer designed to be used interactively by a single person sitting at the console.<ref>{{cite web |title=IBM workstations |url=https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/emea.pdf |website=IBM}}</ref> It was introduced in 1959.<ref>{{cite web |date=2003-01-23 |title=IBM Archives: 1620 Data Processing System |url=https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP1620.html |access-date=2022-03-06 |website=www.ibm.com |language=en-US}}</ref> One peculiar feature of the machine is that it lacks any arithmetic circuitry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sweeney |first=D. W. |date=1965 |title=An analysis of floating-point addition |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1147/sj.41.0031 |journal=IBM Systems Journal |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=31–42 |doi=10.1147/sj.41.0031 |issn=0018-8670|url-access=subscription }}</ref> To perform addition, it requires a memory-resident table of decimal addition rules.<ref>{{cite web |date=2017-12-22 |title=IBM 1620 |url=http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/archive-and-research-collections/hocc/computersandsoftware/earlycomputers/ibm1620/ |access-date=2022-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222105457/http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/archive-and-research-collections/hocc/computersandsoftware/earlycomputers/ibm1620/ |archive-date=2017-12-22 }}</ref> This reduced the cost of logic circuitry, enabling IBM to make it inexpensive. The machine is [[codename]]d CADET and was initially rented for $1000 per month.

In 1965, the [[IBM 1130]] scientific computer became the successor to 1620. Both of these systems run [[Fortran]] and other languages.<ref>{{cite web |date=2019-07-05 |title=IBM 1130 Press Release |url=http://www.ibm1130.net/1130Release.html |access-date=2022-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705200515/http://www.ibm1130.net/1130Release.html |archive-date=2019-07-05 }}</ref> They are built into roughly desk-sized cabinets, with console typewriters. They have optional add-on disk drives, printers, and both paper-tape and punched-card I/O.

Early workstations were generally dedicated [[minicomputer]]s, a multiuser system reserved for one user.{{r|baran198902}} For example, the [[PDP-8]] from [[Digital Equipment Corporation]], is regarded as the first commercial minicomputer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hey |first=Anthony J. G. |title=The computing universe : a journey through a revolution |date=2015 |others=Gyuri Pápay |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-12976-0 |oclc=899007268}}</ref>

Workstations have historically been more advanced than contemporary PCs, with more powerful CPU architectures, earlier networking, more advanced graphics, more memory, and multitasking with sophisticated operating systems like Unix. Because of their minicomputer heritage, from the start workstations have run professional and expensive software such as CAD and graphics design, as opposed to PCs' games and text editors.{{r|baran198902}} The [[Lisp machine]]s developed at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] in the early 1970s pioneered some workstation principles, as high-performance, networked, single-user systems intended for heavily interactive use. Lisp Machines were commercialized beginning 1980 by companies like [[Symbolics]], [[Lisp Machines]], [[Texas Instruments]] (the [[TI Explorer]]), and [[Xerox]] (the [[Interlisp-D]] workstations). The first computer designed for a single user, with high-resolution graphics (and so a workstation in the modern sense), is the [[Xerox Alto|Alto]] developed at [[Xerox PARC]] in 1973.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newquist |first=HP |url=http://archive.org/details/brainmakers0000newq |title=The Brain Makers |date=1994 |publisher=Indianapolis, Ind. : Sams Pub. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-672-30412-5}}</ref> Other early workstations include the [[Terak 8510/a]] (1977),<ref>{{cite web |title=» Pascal and the P-Machine The Digital Antiquarian |url=https://www.filfre.net/2012/03/pascal-and-the-p-machine/ |access-date=2022-03-08 |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Three Rivers PERQ]] (1979), and the later [[Xerox Star]] (1981).