Altair
Computer from MITS that was
developed by Henry Edward Roberts and
introduced on December 19,
1974. It was later published on the front
cover of Popular Electronics in 1975 making it almost instantly a huge success.
The Altair 8800 included an Intel 8080 processor, "1024 word" memory boards with 256 bytes of memory (expandable to 64 K) and
was available as a kit for $439 or assembled for
$621 and had several additional add-ons such as a memory board and interface
boards. By August 1975 over 5,000 Altair 8800 personal
computers were sold and started the personal computer revolution. In the picture to the right, is an example of what the Altair 8800 computer looked like. This
photograph was taken by Euthman at the Smithsonian institute.
Also see: Computer history, Personal computer