Altair 8800

Altair 8800

   <computer> An {Intel 8080}-based machine made by {MITS}.  The
   Altair was the first popular {microcomputer} kit.

   It appeared on the cover of the January 1975 "Popular
   Electronics" magazine with an article (probably) by Leslie
   Solomon.  Leslie Solomon was an editor at Popular Electronics
   who had a knack for spotting kits that would interest people
   and make them buy the magazine.  The Altair 8800 was one such.
   The MITS guys took the prototype Altair to New York to show
   Solomon, but couldn't get it to work after the flight.
   Nonetheless, he liked it, and it appeared on the cover as "The
   first minicomputer in a kit."

   Solomon's blessing was important enough that some MITS
   competitors named their product the "SOL" to gain his favour.
   Some wags suggested {SOL} was actually an abbreviation for the
   condition in which kit purchasers would find themselves.

   {Bill Gates} and Paul Allen saw the article on the Altair 8800
   in Popular Electronics.  They realised that the Altair, which
   was programmed via its binary front panel needed a {high level
   language}.  Legend has it that they called MITS with the claim
   that they had a {BASIC} {interpreter} for the Altair.  When
   MITS asked them to demo it in Albuquerque, they wrote one on
   the plane.  On arrival, they entered the machine code via the
   front panel and demonstrated and sold their "product."  Thus
   was born "Altair BASIC."

   The original Altair BASIC ran in less than 4K of RAM because a
   "loaded" Altair had 4K memory.  Since there was no {operating
   system} on the Altair, Altair BASIC included what we now think
   of as {BIOS}.  It was distributed on {paper tape} that could
   be read on a {Teletype}.  Later versions supported the 8K
   Altair and the 16K {diskette}-based Altair (demonstrating
   that, even in the 1970s, {Microsoft} was committed to
   {software bloat}).  Altair BASIC was ported to the {Motorola
   6800} for the Altair 680 machine, and to other 8080-based
   microcomputers produced by MITS' competitors.

   PC-History.org Altair 8800 page
   (http://pc-history.org/altair_8800.htm).

   [Forrest M. Mimms, article in "Computers and Electronics",
   (formerly "Popular Electronics"), Jan 1985(?)].

   [Was there ever an "Altair 9000" microcomputer?]

   (2002-06-17)