Personal computers and EMC control; last 25 years

In the mid-1970s, the predominate electromagnetic emission requirements came from Germany in the form of VDE 0871 and VDE 0875, and Pvf 523 and Pvf 529 for office products sold there. Most companies that marketed office products meeting these requirements were the multinational companies like IBM, Xerox, Wang, Burroughs, Digital Equipment and others. In the last half of the 1970s, a new class of product joined the group of electrical devices called office products. This new class of office product was called a personal computer (PC). This designation highlighted the fact that electronic product features and software of a PC were becoming more usable for the office environment. The paper looks at the advances in PC technology over the last 25 years and how EMC requirements have been affected.