Altair 8800 microcomputer
Altair 8800, primer ordenador personal de éxito
- Date
- 1975 · confidence high
- Place
- MITS, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
- Credited to
- Ed Roberts (MITS)
- People
- 👤 Ed Roberts1941–2010
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Microcomputer kit based on the Intel 8080 sold by mail order to hobbyists. It unleashed the personal computer movement and prompted the founding of Microsoft (Altair BASIC).
The Micral N (France, 1973) and the Kenbak-1 (1971) came earlier but without commercial impact.
What it led to
- The Homebrew Computer Club and the founding of Apple and Microsoft
- The S-100 bus and the peripherals industry
- Computing as a hobby and garage culture
Built on
- Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)1966
- Microprocessor (Intel 4004)1971
- Intel 4004 microprocessor
- Intel 8080
- DRAM memory
Made possible
- Apple II personal computer1977
- Microsoft BASIC
- CP/M