ALTAIR 8800
8-Bit Microcomputer by MITS, c.1974, aluminum case with removable top, face panel with 36 LEDs, 25 switches, cooling fan, additional power supply and interface cables at back, containing 9 modules: 1. MITS CPU, REV 0; 2. Processor Technology Corp (PT) GPM, 1977; 3. Godbout Compukit 106C termination board; 4. PT 3P+S I/O; 5. PT VDM-1 REV C, 1976; 6. PT CUTS REV B, 1976; 7&8. PT 8KRA REV D, 1976; 9. Unidentified board.; lacks name plate on front panel, with modification.
THE MODEL WHICH INSPIRED GATES AND ALLEN. MITS ALTAIR 8800 holds the distinction of being the first microcomputer to catch on with the hobbyist market. It was originally offered in kit form for $439 or assembled for $621. Bill Gates, then in his Sophomore year at Harvard, and Paul Allen came across the December 1974 issue of Popular Electronics which featured the Altair on the cover and decided to join the computer revolution by writing a BASIC interpreter that would run on Altair's Intel 8080 microprocessor. "It would become the first commercial native high-level programming language for a microprocessor. And it would launch the personal computer software industry" (Isaacson p.332).
This example contains the Processor Technology Subsystem B group of 5 modules. Processor Technology Corporation, a company founded originally to create products for S-100 bus systems like the Altair and noted for their high quality, went on to produce their own microcomputer with the successful Sol 20. Isaacson. The Innovators. NY: [2014].
