Ed Roberts (computer Engineer) - Altair 8800 Computer

Altair 8800 Computer

Roberts decided to return to the kit market with a low cost computer. The target customer would think that "some assembly required" was a desirable feature. In April 1974 Intel released the 8080 microprocessor that Roberts felt was powerful enough for his computer kit but each 8080 chip sold for $360 in small quantities. Roberts felt the price of a computer kit had to be under $400; to meet this price he agreed to order 1000 microprocessors from Intel for $75 each. Roberts did the circuit design and Bill Yates did the circuit board layout. The company was down to 20 employees and a bank loan for $65,000 financed the design and initial production of the new computer. Roberts told the bank he expected to sell 800 computers but he guessed it would be around 200.

Art Salsberg, editorial director of Popular Electronics, was looking for a computer construction project, and his technical editor, Les Solomon, knew MITS was working on an Intel 8080 based computer kit. Roberts assured Solomon that the project would be complete by November to meet the press deadline for the January 1975 issue. The first prototype was finished in October and shipped to Popular Electronics in New York for the cover photograph, but it was lost in transit. Solomon already had a number of pictures of the machine, and the article was based on them. Roberts and Yates got to work on building a replacement. The computer on the magazine cover was an empty box with just switches and LEDs on the front panel. The finished Altair computer had a completely different circuit board layout than the prototype shown in the magazine.

MITS products typically had generic names such as the Model 1440 Calculator or the Model 1600 Digital Voltmeter. The editors of Popular Electronics wanted a more alluring name for the computer. MITS technical writer, David Bunnell, came up with three pages of possible names, but Roberts was too busy finishing the computer design to choose a name. There are several versions of the story of who selected Altair as the computer name. At the first Altair Computer Convention (March 1976), Les Solomon told the audience that the name was inspired by his 12-year-old daughter, Lauren. "She said why don't you call it Altair – that's where the Enterprise is going tonight." The December 1976 issue of Popular Science misquoted this account giving credit to Ed Roberts' daughter. His only daughter, Dawn, was not born until 1983. Both of these versions have appeared in many books, magazines and web sites.

Another editor, Alexander Burawa, recalls a less dramatic version. The Altair was originally going to be named the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this name to be rather dull, so Solomon, Burawa, and John McVeigh decided that: "It's a stellar event, so let's name it after a star." McVeigh suggested "Altair", the twelfth-brightest star in the sky.

When the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics reached readers in mid-December 1974, MITS was flooded with orders. They had to hire extra people just to answer the phones. In February, MITS received 1,000 orders for the Altair 8800. The quoted delivery time was 60 days but it was many more months before the machines were shipped. By August 1975, they had shipped over 5,000 computers.

The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS. They needed to sell additional memory boards, I/O boards and other options to make a profit. The April 1975 issue of the MITS newsletter, Computer Notes, had a page-long price list that offered over 15 optional boards. The delivery time given was 60 or 90 days, but many items were never produced and dropped from future price lists. Initially, Roberts decided to concentrate on production of the computers. Prompt delivery of optional boards did not occur until October 1975.

There were several design and component problems in the MITS 4K Dynamic RAM board. By July, new companies such as Processor Technology were selling 4K Static RAM boards with the promise of reliable operation. Ed Roberts acknowledged the 4K Dynamic RAM board problems in the October 1975 Computer Notes. The price was reduced from $264 to $195 and existing purchasers got a $50 refund. MITS released its own 4K Static RAM board in January 1976.

Several other companies started making add-in boards and the first clone, the IMSAI 8080, was available in December 1975.