{"id":72,"date":"2022-01-30T20:10:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T23:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.computer.etc.br\/site\/?page_id=72"},"modified":"2022-01-31T16:22:46","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T19:22:46","slug":"mits-altair-8800","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.computer.etc.br\/site\/mits-altair-8800\/","title":{"rendered":"1974 MITS Altair 8800"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The MITS Altair 8800 is a personal computer designed in 1975, based on the Intel 8080 CPU.<\/p>\n

Originally sold as a kit through the US magazine Popular Electronics<\/a>, the designers were aiming to sell just a few hundred units, and were surprised when they sold 10 times what they had forecast for the first month. Today the Altair is recognized as the spark that led to the personal computer revolution in the following years: computer buses designed for the Altair would become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus and the first programming language for the machine was Altair BASIC, which led to the founding of Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
INTRODUCED: <\/b><\/td>\nJanuary 1975<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AVAILABLE:<\/b><\/td>\nFebruary 1975<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PRICES:<\/b><\/td>\nUS $395 as a kit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(prior to March)<\/td>\nUS $650 assembled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
HOW MANY:<\/b><\/td>\nestimated 2000+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CPU:<\/b><\/td>\nIntel 8080, 2.0 MHz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
RAM:<\/b><\/td>\n256 bytes, 64K max<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DISPLAY:<\/b><\/td>\nfront panel LEDs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CONTROLS:<\/b><\/td>\nfront panel switches<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
EXPANSION:<\/b><\/td>\nAltair-bus card-cage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
STORAGE:<\/b><\/td>\npaper tape, cassette or<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nfloppy drive<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OS:<\/b><\/td>\nCP\/M, BASIC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Additional Altair cards available from MITS:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Function<\/td>\nkit price<\/td>\nassembled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1K static RAM<\/td>\n$97<\/td>\n$139<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2K static RAM<\/td>\n$145<\/td>\n$195<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4K dynamic RAM<\/td>\n$195<\/td>\n$275<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Serial interface (Rs232)<\/td>\n$119<\/td>\n$139<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Serial interface (Teletype)<\/td>\n$124<\/td>\n$146<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Parallel interface<\/td>\n$92<\/td>\n$114<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cassette interface<\/td>\n$128<\/td>\n$175<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Teletype Model 33 ASR<\/td>\nN.A.<\/td>\n$1500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Bill Gates\u00a0and\u00a0Paul Allen\u00a0saw an opportunity and wrote\u00a0Altair BASIC<\/a>, a true programming language. Monte Davidoff contributed maths routines, including the floating-point routines for Altair 4K BASIC. Altair BASIC was very expensive\u00a0at $500, but only $75 when purchased with an Altair computer, an interface board, and 8K of memory.
\nSoon after, Gates and Allen formed their own company –\u00a0Micro-Soft, and sold Altair BASIC as their first product.<\/p>\n

The Altair 8800 Reborn<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n