This system contains 6 s100 bus cards including disk controller, parallel io, and others. Altairduino the lowcost altair 8800 machina speculatrix. This machine belonged to my father, who knew les soloman, and was able to purchase the 2nd and 3rd machines made. The larger companies could sell below cost to win market share. By early 1974, ed roberts found that he could purchase a calculator in a retail store for less than his cost of materials. Mits altair 8800 article about mits altair 8800 by the free. Or you can start with an altair 8800 complete data processing system. Jan 05, 2014 introduction to the mits programming system ii for the altair 8800. For details and photos refer to the system 2 detail page. They even moved to mits in albuquerque to expand their role. Original mits altair documentation altair 8800 operators manual 5.
In this hustle bustle world of smartphones and internet of things, its hard to remember that there was a time. American inventor ed roberts puts his altair 8800, a. The intel 8080 emulator code is based on apple80 by dann mccreary. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the january 1975 issues and was sold by mail order through advertisements there in radioelectronics, and in other hobbyist magazines. The altair 8800, was first featured in the january and february 1975 editions of popular electronics magazine, although this early design bore little resemblance to the finalized version released just a few months later. Altair 8800 computer for sale computer museum, hobbyist. Featured texts all books all texts latest this just in smithsonian libraries fedlink us genealogy lincoln collection. The mits altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 based on the intel 8080 cpu. Dec 20, 2019 the mits altair 8800 prom board is actually a solid state music card. Altair 8800 complete history of the mits altair 8800. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred buildityourself kits. Written by harry fairhead sunday, 18 march 2018 without the altair 8800 where would we be today. Altair 8800 chm revolution computer history museum.
This machine belonged to my father, who knew les soloman, and was able. This computer has been restored to working order by win heagy. Later versions supported the 8k altair and the 16k diskettebased altair demonstrating that, even in the 1970s, microsoft was committed to software bloat. To this day nobody knows how many computer kits were sold through the magazine, but les solomon told me he estimated over 2,000. The mits altair 8800 was designed around a new microprocessor, the intel 8080, and debuted in 1975. While the original altair 8800 lacked a keyboard and crt monitor, users were happy to run simple machine language programs. For details and photos refer to the floppy drive detail page. The altair articles ran for several issues of popular electronics, and as a result mits was deluged with orders. Altair 8800 project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks. Gates and childhood friend paul allen created basic code for the computers. From paper tape to a patchedtogether altair 8800, the. American inventor ed roberts puts his altair 8800, a microcomputer based on the intel 8080 cpu and using microsofts basic language, on the market. From paper tape to a patchedtogether altair 8800, the story of my first computers.
Altair 8800 part 25 a look at an original mits 88 siob. From the collection, a scannedin computerrelated document. Find great deals on ebay for altair computer and vintage computer. Micro instrumentation and telemetry systems wikipedia. Altair 8800 microcomputer keyboard national museum of. Ed roberts minicomputer kit was a vital catalyst to todays technology, inspiring bill gates and paul allen to found microsoft in order to write a basic interpreter for it. Interest grows quickly after it is featured on the cover of the january issue of popular electronics. Shortly thereafter the apple i, apple ii, commodore pet, and trs80 were released.
The a3 led isnt working, but everything else seems to flash appropriately. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred buildityourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the. Originally designed to launch multiple model rockets in sequence, it was programmable and had to be ordered through the mail and built upon receipt. The altair 8800 was invented on december 19, 1974, so by 1979, it was almost. Check that altair 8800 web page for a company and product history of mits. In 1975, the first commercially successful home computer, the mits altair 8800 the same computer that microsoft was founded to provide programming for, was released.
Popular electronics featured the mits altair 8800 microcomputer kit in january 1975. The altair 8800 was far from the first personal computer but it was the first truly successful one. I went to the 2014 hamfest frostfest in richmond va to sell some of my ham radio equipment an a vintage mits altair 8800 microcomputer. The mits altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the intel 8080 cpu and sold by mail order through advertisements in popular electronics, radioelectronics and other hobbyist magazines. Among certain collectors the mits altair 8800 is considered to be one of the most prized computers you can own. Up until this point, mits was known for selling calculators and model rocket components telemetry. Demonstrates booting and initializing the monitor, editor and assembler from cassette tape. The altair 8800 along with a few books from our old blacksburg and bugbook series created a crowd of folks at our booth.
The altair 8800 the first machine to run the microsoft software. His daughter named the new machine after the star altair. Search the history of over 418 billion web pages on the internet. Im probably far more versed in the history of the personal computer than someone really should be but in high school i was quite fascinated by the whole saga and read a lot of books on the subject. The mits altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the intel 8080 cpu and sold as a mail order kit through advertisements in popular electronics, radio electronics and other hobbyist magazines. Not long after intel introduced its 8080 microprocessor, a small firm in albuquerque, new mexico, named mits micro instrumentation and telemetry systems announced a computer kit called the altair, which met the social as well as technical requirements for a small personal computer. Introduction to front panel operation of the altair 8800 including power on, reset, examining and modifying memory. Vintage computer the mits altair 8800 at frostfest. In contrast with the first microprocessor based personal computermicral, the mits altair 8800 was extremely successful market product. Its announcement on the january 1975 issue of popular electronics magazine led the albuquerquebased manufacturer to a fourmonth backlog attempting to fill orders.
The mits altair 8800, followed by the imsai 8080, an altair clone. While it was not strictly a clone of the altair, this machine adopted the bus structure. Jul, 2008 shows how to load a bootloader, run the bootloader, boot mits 8k basic, load a craps game and run it on a mits altair 8800 microcomputer. Hand crafted keyboard for the altair 8800 microcomputer. The altair 8800 is a computer kit based on the intel 8080 cpu, designed by micro instrumentation and telemetry systems mits, which was headed by h. The altair 8800 from micro instrumentation telemetry systems mits of albuquerque, nm, is considered by many to be the first personal computer a computer that is easily affordable and obtainable. Jan 08, 2015 during the months following the altair 8800 article in the january 1975 popular electronics, mits sold thousands of assembled and kit altairs, even though the early models had only 256 bytes of ram and no keyboard or monitor beyond their front panel switches and leds. Air force officer who headed mits, decided to design a small, affordable computer around the intel 8080. Microsoft was founded to make software basic for the altair. Click a thumbnail to see a larger version of the picture. Ii apple lisa dec pdp8 altair 8800 computer history. Mits altair 8800 computer steves computer collection. While it was not strictly a clone of the altair, this machine adopted the bus structure of the altair and used interchangeable plugin. Owning a piece of computer history can be expensive and not much fun.
The altair is generally credited with launching the pc revolution in earnest. Mar 08, 20 the altair 8800 from micro instrumentation telemetry systems mits of albuquerque, nm, is considered by many to be the first personal computer a computer that is easily affordable and obtainable. It was the first microcomputer to sell in large numbers. Sim 8800 emulates a mits altair 8800 on an apple ii. The story of the first true personal computer has many versions. It is over 20 years since the debut of the altair 8800 computer in the pages of popular electronics magazine, but everyone connected with it tells a completely different story. Scelbi8h complete history of the scelbi8h computer. I discussed the altair 680 product line in sept 2011 with a former pertec employee.
Shows how to load a bootloader, run the bootloader, boot mits 8k basic, load a craps game and run it on a mits altair 8800 microcomputer. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the january 1975 issue published in december 1974 of popular electronics, and was sold by mail order through advertisements there, in radioelectronics, and in other hobbyist magazines. Its assembly isnt much more difficult than assembling a desktop calculator. In july 1974 radioelectronics published plans for a similar 8008 machine, called the mark8, that skilled hobbyists could fabricate for the cost of parts. Created by ed roberts in 1974, it was the first pc personal computer, the forerunner of the apple, the ibm pc and all that would follow. Altair 8800 microcomputer national museum of american. Altair front panel just the front panel, in dim light so you can see the lights. Converting my altair 8800 emulator into an s100 based system by replacing the front panel electronics and installing an s100 back plane and reproduction altair 8800 cpu.
Scelbi responded by introducing the scelbi8b model with 16k of memory. The 2k4k eprom board used in both of my altair systems came from the solid state music company. The altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by mits and based on the intel 8080 cpu. Companies like mits started selling systems based on more capable processors, such as the 8080 used in the mits altair 8800. Due to the saintlevel kindness of don miller, the museum now physically contains an altair 8800. A retracing of how paul allen loaded basic on the mits altair 8800. Micro instrumentation and telemetry systems mits was an american electronics company founded in albuquerque, new mexico that began manufacturing electronic calculators in 1971 and personal computers in 1975. It was the computer that two kids, bill gates and paul allen, quit college for, in order to write a basic interpreter. The altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution as the first. Vintage microcomputer collectibles of every kind, including kim1 synertek sym1 cosmac elf heathkit et3400 aim 65 intel sdk86 sdk85 imsai 8080 altair 8800 commodore c64128 motorola mek6800d1 mek6800d2 steve jobs next nextstep apple lisa apple ii iie iigs eniac babbage intel 4004 8008 dec pdp8 books. Altair basic was ported to the motorola 6800 for the altair 680 machine, and to other 8080based microcomputers produced by mits competitors. One device that got a lot of mentions was the mits altair 8800 which is considered to be the system that truly sparked the personal computer revolution. Stan veit computer history altair 8800 apple 1 xerox 1984 macintosh sinclair osi. The altair is arguably the first hobbyist personal.
If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. Roberts built the mits altair 8800, which had no display screen. Find great deals on ebay for altair 8800 and imsai 8080. Inside the altair 8800 vintage computer 3 page 3 zdnet. Whats clear, though, is that the mark 8 has become nothing more than a footnote in computing history while the altair 8800, based on the more powerful 8080 processor, began a revolution. The key role of the altair was that it attracted paul allen and bill gates to develop altair basic. Of these computers the apple ii was by far the most successful. This web page will discuss the 680, provide some resources, and show discussion from some current owners of their systems. The first personal computers, introduced in 1975, came as kits. Win has been a vintage computer collector for years and has restored many old computers including an original digital equipment pdp8 minicomputer pdp8 work is still in progress. At this point in time, there were no computer or electronic stores to buy your own computer. Mits altair 8800 exhibit at s virtual computer museum.
The altair 8800 was the computer that brought computing into homes and small businesses. Personal computer history doesnt begin with ibm or microsoft, although microsoft was an early participant in the fledgling pc industry. Here are some more detailed photos of the altair 8800. It became the firstever commercially successful personal computer, especially compared to the first microprocessorbased personal computer micral. You can buy a vintage mits altair 8800, one of the worlds first successful desktop computers, on ebay, but a good one will. The mits altair 8800 is widely known as the first real personal computer. Oct 25, 2010 definitely larger than a bread box, the mits altair 8800 started the personal computer revolution or at least had a very significant role in it. Geeks endlessly argue about which was the first real computer and which was the first home computer. Search the history of over 424 billion web pages on the internet. Ed roberts added the numbers 8800 to the name because he intended to make later models.
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