THE THIRD PLACE: HOW INTEL’S 386 MADE US REALISE PC GAMING WOULD BE A THING

These days of course, there are basically two types of personal computer - PCs and Macs. And in 2006, Apple embraced Intel’s (near) monopoly on PC architecture and switched away from PowerPC CPUs to Corewhatevers. The phrase “IBM PC” might have become socially obsolete years earlier, but its victory over end-user multipurpose desktop computing was now absolute.

What’s interesting about Steve Jobs’ 2006 announcement is that it implies Apple probably made the decision at least a year earlier... and 2005 marked the 20th anniversary of the release of the Intel 80386.

Also known as the i386 (after various copyright courts ruled that Intel could no longer register numbers as a trademark) or colloquially to the likes of us as the 386, this