In 1974 a small New Mexico company put a microprocessor in a box, sold it as a kit, and accidentally started the personal computer industry. The Altair 8800 was the machine that put a real stored-program computer in individual hands.
The idea
A microprocessor cheap enough for one person to own turns the computer from an institutional machine into a personal one. The hobbyist, not the corporation, becomes the user, and a mass market follows.
The machine
The Altair 8800 was introduced by MITS in 1974, built on the Intel 8080 microprocessor. It was sold to hobbyists, often as a kit to assemble at home, and computer historians credit it with catalyzing the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. It was bare by later standards, switches and lights, but it was a genuine computer an individual could buy.
Microsoft’s start
The first programming language for the Altair was Altair BASIC, the founding product of Microsoft. When Paul Allen first ran it on the machine, it printed READY and worked, and a company was born around the idea of selling software for personal computers.
Why it matters
The Altair proved there was a market for a computer an individual could own. Within a few years the graphical interface would make such a computer usable by anyone, and software like VisiCalc would give people a reason to buy one. Personal computing became the dominant form, and it started with a kit.
Related Notes
- The Microprocessor, the chip that made it possible
- Xerox PARC and the Graphical User Interface, what made the PC usable
- VisiCalc and the Killer App, what made people buy one
- History of Computing, the section index
Sources
- “Altair 8800,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800 . Supports the Altair 8800 as a microcomputer introduced by MITS in 1974 based on the Intel 8080, credited with catalyzing the microcomputer revolution, and Altair BASIC as Microsoft’s founding product written for it.