The First PCs - Kenbak-1; Micral; and Altair 8800.Altair - In January 1975, Popular Electronics magazine's cover featured a picture of the Altair 8800 computer - the world's first microcomputer which used the new Intel 8080 processor - sold mail order by a tiny company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This company's name was MITS - which stood for Model Instrumentation Telemetry Systems - and it's owner was a fellow named Ed Roberts who had previously written some articles for the magazine.
Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems - MITS - Roberts, H. Edward, American Air Force officer who, along with three friends, founded the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), which thrived when in 1971 it began producing the large scale integrated calculator kit in the U.S. The company soon introduced the Altair, an affordable computer kit that uncovered a huge market for microcomputers. Roberts, is now a small town medical doctor.
MITS/Pertec Altair 8800/680b/MITS 300 - Icom, Vector Graphic , Tarbell, PMMI, or other products that are not Altair or MITS products, it is because the systems were often mixed. These companies and components are an integral part of the Altair story.
Ed Roberts Interview - Historically Brewed magazine.
MITS Altair 8800 - Considered by many to be the first microcomputer, the MITS altair 8800 was based on a 2 MHz Intel 8080 with 256 bytes standard RAM and interfaced with the user through the octal front panel switches. This unit has an 8" floppy disk drive.
Altair 8800 - It was 25 years ago, in 1975 and MITS presented its first home computer kit.
