Altair 8080 From the Museum Collection

The project's genesis came in late 1974, when Popular Electronics technical editor Les Soloman reviewed plans for personal computers from readers around the nation. Dissatisfied with their proposals, he contacted his friend Ed Roberts, president of MITS, in Albuquerque, N.M.

Soloman and Roberts worked nights designing a desktop computer that could sell for less than $500. Robert's idea was to design a computer that could be expandable like minicomputers used by businesses.

An article detailing the Altair's workings was published in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics describing it as the "World's First Minicomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models."

Inside view of an Altair 8080 (Click on photo for larger view) From the Museum Collection

Response was immediate and enormous. Orders poured in from computer enthusiasts. To fulfill them all, a stripped-down version was sent out -- the original Altairs were nothing more than a kit consisting of an empty box, a CPU card containing an Intel 8080 processor, 256 bytes of memory, and a front panel containing toggle switches and LED front panel. Data entry required manipulating the switches for each binary digit.

The Altair had severe limitations. Data capacity of 256 bytes barely stored a paragraph's worth of information, which was lost as soon as the computer was powered down. Entering data was time-consuming, and quality control was virtually impossible as the machine's ability to perform as advertised was limited by the skill of the individual hobbyist who assembled it.

But two then-obscure programmers living in Boston recognized the Altair's potential. Bill Gates and Paul Allen had developed a BASIC programming language that would run on the Altair .

Altair 8080 and floppy disk drive From the Museum Collection

Though they were unable to overcome the machine's basic limitations and help MITS thrive, the experience served as the genesis of their own fledging enterprise, Microsoft. The original Altair eventually faded into a footnote of computer history as better-funded, more innovating companies such as Apple and Commodore joined in the competition for the home computer consumer's dollars. Roberts eventually sold MITS and left the industry to return to his medical career.

But the Altair is credited with helping provide the foundation for the future growth of the personal computing industy, inspiring such computer-centric traditions as users' groups, software swaps and computer shows and changing the way many people work and live.