IBM compatible

computer A computer which can use hardware and software

designed for the IBM PC (or, less often, IBM mainframes).

This was once a key phrase in marketing a new PC clone but

now in 1998 is rarely used, the non-IBM wintel personalcomputer manufacturers such as Compaq, Dell and Gateway2000 and OS vendor Microsoft having taken control of the

market, marginalising IBM.

(1998-07-30)