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<p>A <b>multimedia computer</b> is a <a href="Computer" title="Computer">computer</a> that is optimized for <a href="Multimedia" title="Multimedia">multimedia</a> performance.
</p><p>Early <a href="Home_computer" title="Home computer">home computers</a> lacked the power and storage necessary for true multimedia. The games for these systems, along with the <a href="Demo_scene" class="mw-redirect" title="Demo scene">demo scene</a>, were able to achieve high sophistication and technical polish using only simple, blocky graphics and digitally generated sound.
</p><p>The <a href="Amiga_1000" title="Amiga 1000">Amiga 1000</a> from <a href="Commodore_International" title="Commodore International">Commodore International</a> has been called the first multimedia computer.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Its groundbreaking animation, graphics and sound technologies enabled multimedia content to flourish. Famous demos such as the <a href="Amiga#Marketing" title="Amiga">Boing Ball</a><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and Juggler<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> showed off the Amiga's abilities. Later the <a href="Atari_ST" title="Atari ST">Atari ST</a> series and <a href="Apple_Macintosh_II" class="mw-redirect" title="Apple Macintosh II">Apple Macintosh II</a> extended the concept; the Atari integrated a <a href="MIDI" title="MIDI">MIDI</a> port and was the first computer under US$1000 to have 1 megabyte of <a href="RAM" class="mw-redirect" title="RAM">RAM</a>, which is a realistic minimum for multimedia content, and the Macintosh was the first computer able to display true photorealistic graphics as well as integrating a <a href="CD-ROM" title="CD-ROM">CD-ROM</a> drive, whose high capacity was essential for delivering multimedia content in the pre-<a href="Internet" title="Internet">Internet</a> era.
</p><p>While the Commodore machines had the hardware to present multimedia of the kinds listed above, they lacked a way to create it easily. One of the earliest <a href="Authoring_system" title="Authoring system">authoring systems</a> on the market for creating and deploying multimedia content can be found in the archives of the <a href="Smithsonian_Institution" title="Smithsonian Institution">Smithsonian Institution</a> and is called <i>VirtualVideo</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It consisted of a standard PC with an added digital imaging board, an added digital audio capture board (that was sold as a phone answering device), and the DOS authoring software, <i>VirtualVideo Producer</i>. The system stored content on a local hard drive but could use networked computer storage as well. The name for the software was used because at the time, the mid-1980s, the term multimedia was used to describe slide shows with sound. This software was later sold as Tempra,<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and in 1993 was included with Tay Vaugh's first edition of <i>Multimedia: Making It Work</i>.
</p><p>Multimedia capabilities were not common on <a href="IBM_PC_compatible" title="IBM PC compatible">IBM PC compatibles</a> until the advent of <a href="Windows_3.0" title="Windows 3.0">Windows 3.0</a> and the <a href="Multimedia_PC" title="Multimedia PC">MPC</a> standards in the early 1990s. The original PCs were devised as "serious" business machines and colorful graphics and powerful sound abilities weren't a priority. The few games available suffered from slow video hardware, <a href="PC_speaker" title="PC speaker">PC speaker</a> sound and limited color palette when compared to its contemporaries. But as PCs penetrated the home market in the late 1980s, a thriving industry arose to equip PCs to take advantage of the latest sound, graphics and animation technologies. <a href="Creative_Technology" title="Creative Technology">Creative</a>'s <a href="SoundBlaster" class="mw-redirect" title="SoundBlaster">SoundBlaster</a> series of sound cards, as well as <a href="Video_card" class="mw-redirect" title="Video card">video cards</a> from <a href="ATI_Technologies" title="ATI Technologies">ATI</a>, <a href="Nvidia" title="Nvidia">Nvidia</a> and <a href="Matrox" title="Matrox">Matrox</a>, soon became standard equipment for most PCs sold.
</p><p>As of 2021, most PCs have good multimedia features. They have dual or more core CPUs clocked at 2.0 GHz or faster, at least 4 GB of RAM and an integrated <a href="Graphics_processing_unit" title="Graphics processing unit">graphics processing unit</a>. Popular graphics cards include Nvidia <a href="GeForce" title="GeForce">GeForce</a> or AMD <a href="Radeon" title="Radeon">Radeon</a>. The <a href="Intel_Core" title="Intel Core">Intel Core</a> and <a href="AMD_Ryzen" class="mw-redirect" title="AMD Ryzen">AMD Ryzen</a> platform, and <a href="Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a> <a href="Windows_10" title="Windows 10">Windows 10</a> and <a href="Windows_11" title="Windows 11">Windows 11</a> are some of today's products that excel at multimedia computing.
</p><p>More recently, high-performance devices have become more compact, and multimedia computer capabilities are found in mobile devices such as the <a href="Apple_iPhone" class="mw-redirect" title="Apple iPhone">Apple iPhone</a> and <a href="Android_(operating_system)" title="Android (operating system)">many Android phones</a>, featuring DVD-like video quality, multi-<a href="Megapixel" class="mw-redirect" title="Megapixel">megapixel</a> cameras, music and video players, and internet call (VoIP) functionality.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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</style><cite id="CITEREFTom_R._Halfhill1994" class="citation web cs1">Tom R. Halfhill (August 1994). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070407132023/http://www.byte.com/art/9408/sec14/art1.htm">"R.I.P. Commodore 1954-1994"</a>. <i>www.byte.com</i>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.byte.com/art/9408/sec14/art1.htm">the original</a> on 7 April 2007.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Archived at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/-ga41edXw3A">Ghostarchive</a> and the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120530180727/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ga41edXw3A">Wayback Machine</a>: <cite class="citation audio-visual cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ga41edXw3A"><i>Amiga Boing Ball</i></a>. <i><a href="YouTube" title="YouTube">YouTube</a></i>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Archived at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/gQgJ2jZwu9Y">Ghostarchive</a> and the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130729152040/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQgJ2jZwu9Y">Wayback Machine</a>: <cite class="citation audio-visual cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQgJ2jZwu9Y"><i>Behold the Juggler</i></a>. <i><a href="YouTube" title="YouTube">YouTube</a></i>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.si.edu/object/att-6300-computer-and-virtualvideo-producer-software:nmah_1278750">"AT&T 6300 Microcomputer and VirtualVideo Producer Software"</a>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.si.edu/object/software-tempra-media-author-and-documentation-tempra-show-reference-guide:nmah_1278771">"Software, TEMPRA Media Author! And Documentation, Tempra Show Reference Guide"</a>.</cite></span>
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