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First Microcomputer - 1975
The MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems) Altair 8800 is one
of the earliest commercially available personal computers
(microcomputers). Ed Roberts sold these machines along with
radio-controlled models by mail-order from the MITS factory in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1975, Paul Allen and Bill Gates (then a
student at Harvard), decided to write a programming language to run on
the Altair. They wrote a scaled down version of BASIC, and thus began
Microsoft (the company - then known as Personal Software, with the
Microsoft name nothing but a product brand).
MITS was much less fortunate. It could never recover from its cash
flow troubles. By 1977 Ed Roberts sold his company and followed his
true passion by returning to medicine.
MITS Altair 8800 Microcomputer - 1975
You had to program it via Paper Tape
for by
the "Rocker" Switches on the front panel!
Named after the movie Forbidden Planet! |