Editing 1981 in science (section)

==Computer science==
* March 5 – The [[ZX81]], a pioneering British [[home computer]], is launched by [[Sinclair Research]], going on to sell over 1.5 million units worldwide.
* April 3 – The [[Osborne 1]], the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the [[West Coast Computer Faire]] in [[San Francisco]].
* July 9 – [[Nintendo]] releases the arcade game ''[[Donkey Kong (arcade game)|Donkey Kong]]'' featuring the debut of [[Mario]].
* August 12 – The [[IBM Personal Computer]] is released.<ref>{{cite web|first=Mary|last=Bellis|title=IBM History|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/computersandinternet/a/Ibm-History.htm|archive-url=http://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120427191240/http://inventors.about.com/od/computersandinternet/a/Ibm%2DHistory.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 27, 2012|publisher=About.com|accessdate=2011-11-30}}</ref>
* September 12 – The [[Chaos Computer Club]], a European association of [[Hacker (computer security)|hacker]]s, is established in Berlin by [[Wau Holland]] and others.