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| | Altair |
 | | MITS Altair 8800 Considered by many to be the first microcomputer, the MITS altair 8800 was based on a 2 MHz Intel 8080 with 256 bytes standard RAM and interfaced with the user through the octal front panel switches. | | | The MITS Altair 8800 was one of the first hobbyist/home/personal microcomputer s, announced in Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975. | | | The MITS Altair is historically important because it was the machine for which Microsoft made their first product – Altair BASIC. |
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http://www.serebella.com/encyclopedia/article-Altair.html
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| | Encyclopedia: Altair 8800 |
| | The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080A CPU. | | | Today the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that led to the personal computer revolution of the next few years: The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC. | | | Altair BASIC, in its first incarnation, MITS 4K BASIC, was a true milestone in software history — the first programming language for the worlds first truly personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800. |
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http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Altair-8800
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| | MITS Altair 8800 Simulator Configuration |
| | The MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) Altair 8800 was announced on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics, which boasted you could buy and build this powerful computer kit for only $397. | | | But the computer was an open system, and by 1977 MITS and many other small startups had added many expansion cards to make the Altair quite a respectable little computer. | | | The updated version with a Z80 CPU was developed by Peter Schorn. |
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http://simh.trailing-edge.com/altair.html
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| | Microsoft BASIC - definition of Microsoft BASIC in Encyclopedia |
| | Altair BASIC (MITS Altair and other S-100 computers) | | | It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first BASIC (and indeed the first programming language) available for the MITS Altair 8800 hobbyist microcomputer. | | | After the initial success of Altair BASIC, Microsoft BASIC became the basis for a lucrative software licensing business, being ported to the majority of the numerous home and personal computers of the 1970s and especially the 1980s, and extended along the way. |
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http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Microsoft_BASIC
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| | NMAH: Altair 8800 Microcomputer |
| | MITS succeeded where other, more established firms had failed, and it was their machine that inaugurated the personal computer age. | | | MITS got its start in computing in 1971, when it introduced an electronic calculator kit. | | | Not long after Intel introduced its 8080 chip, a small firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) announced a computer kit called the Altair, which met the social as well as technical requirements for a small personal computer. |
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http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=29
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| | Altair Basic Programming Language |
| | Altair BASIC, in its first incarnation, MITS 4K BASIC, was a true milestone in software history — the first programming language for the world's first truly personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800. | | | The historic interpreter was later expanded to MITS 8K BASIC, and eventually, Altair Disk Extended BASIC (for use with MITS' floppy disk drive). | | | Written by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff, without access to an actual Altair computer or even an 8080 CPU (they used a self made 8080 simulator running on a PDP-10 minicomputer), it fit nicely into 4 KB of memory leaving enough room — several hundred bytes — for BASIC programs. |
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http://www.wikiverse.org/altair-basic-programming-language
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| | Altair History |
| | Minicomputers cost more than the Altair and IBM Mainframe computers and Super Computers were very expensive. | | | The Altair was called a "Hobbyist Computer" because few users could afford enough parts and peripherals to built a "complete" computer system. | | | The Altair was not called a Personal Computer. |
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http://www.virtualaltair.com/virtualaltair.com/vac_history.asp
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| | Personal Computer Milestones |
| | The Altair, introduced in January 1975, was the first computer to be produced in fairly high quantity, and it was the first computer to run Microsoft software, but we're not sure that's a good thing. | | | Like the Altair, it was available from the manufacturer both as a kit and as a pre-assembled computer. | | | Unfortunately for computer history buffs, the Altair is often mistakenly called the first personal computer by Microsoft-loving journalists who don't know any better. |
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http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml
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| | MITS Altair 8800 computer |
| | The Altair 8800, from Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) of Albuquerque, NM, was first featured in the January 1975 edition of Popular Electronics. | | | Numerous computers from other manufacturers were designed around the S-100 bus - the IMSAI 8800 was the first - the first computer clone. | | | This became a very popular method of making computers, and the Altair bus became an industry standard, but MITS didn't appreciate it being renamed as the S-100 bus. |
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http://www.oldcomputers.net/altair.html
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| | HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things |
| | The designation "8800" referred to the fact that the computer used the new Intel 8080 chip. | | | The Altair was a "hobbyist" computer because customers had to construct the machine from a kit. | | | As sold, the Altair was programmed in direct binary code, using the toggle switches on the front panel to enter one's and zero's. |
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http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=339
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| | ALTAIR 8800 |
| | L'Altair 8800 è stato uno tra i primi personal computer disponibili commercialmente. | | | Ed Roberts, il proprietario della MITS, fece scegliere il nome del computer a sua figlia: Altair, il nome di una stella, usata nel famoso film Star Trek. | | | Nel 1975, il numero di gennaio della rivista Popular Electronics diede inizio al boom dei personal computer, presentando in copertina l'Altair 8800. |
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http://www.24pm-affiliation.com/encyclopedia/A/Altair_8800
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| | MITS/Pertec Altair 8800/680b/MITS 300 |
| | MITS once had the ad on the Back cover of Byte magazine Byte lists the MITS Altair 8800 as one of the Top 20 Small Systems. | | | The Altair pictured on the cover of the magazine is actually a mock-up, as an actual computer was not available, Railway Express loses Ed Robert's only prototype Altair computer, en route to New York for review and photography for publishing by Popular Electronics. | | | In december 1974, Popular Electronics publishes an article by MITS announcing the Altair 8800 computer for US$439 in kit form. |
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http://www.angelfire.com/pq/pcmuseum/altair1.html
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| | fUSION Anomaly. Altair 8800 |
| | Although it was short-lived, the Altair is considered the first successful personal computer, which were then called home computers. | | | The January edition of Popular Electronics featured the Altair 8800 computer kit, based on Intel's 8080 microprocessor, on its cover. | | | Ed Roberts invented the 8800 -- which sold for $297, or $395 with a case -- and coined the term "personal computer." The machine came with 256 bytes of memory (expandable to 64K) and an open 100-line bus structure that |
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http://www.fusionanomaly.net/altair8800.html
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| | An actual MITS Altair 8800 computer |
| | The MITS Altair computer was the base for the first commercial chess computer. | | | A photograph of an actual MITS Altair 8800 computer. | | | As a computer buff, I was especially thrilled to see an actual model as opposed to just in photographs in various web sites and magazines. |
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http://ace942.tripod.com/chess_hall_of_fame/pic082.html
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| | Computer-Gallerie: MITS Altair 8800 |
| | Bereits 1975 wurden 2.000 Stück von MITS verkauft, insgesamt wurden es 10.000. | | | Dies wiederum ließ kurzfristig weitere, konkurrierende "kompatible" Computer mit S-100-Bus entstehen wie z.B. Imsai, SOL, Cromenco und andere. | | | Bei Fertigstellung gingen sie mit dem fertigen Lochstreifen zu MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexiko. |
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http://www.weller.to/com/comp-mits-altair.htm
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| | The MITS Altair |
| | The MITS Altair is perhaps the most famous early computer. | | | The Altair was not the first personal computer. | | | The Altair did not start the computer hobbyist movement. |
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http://www.blinkenlights.com/altair.shtml
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| | MITS ALTAIR 8800 |
| | First, the Altair was not the first computer featured as a construction article in a national electronics magazine. | | | The Altair articles ran for several issues of Popular Electronics, and as a result MITS was deluged with orders. | | | Second, the Altair was offered as a complete kit, not just a list of parts to buy in order to make a computer. |
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http://www.pc-history.org/altair.htm
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| | Starthrift - Mits / Altair Items |
| | This is an early memory card for an Altair 8800 Series computer. | | | This is one transformer of the Three transformer set used in both the 8800 and 8800a computers. | | | This item is perfect for someone who is restoring or building and Altair computer. |
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http://www.starthrift.com/z_item_pages/mits02.html
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| | Altair 8800 |
| | The MITS Altair 8800, released in 1975, was, if not the first personal computer, definitely the first commercially successful personal computer. | | | The Altair 8800 probably also holds the title of 'first computer to be cloned.' The IMSAI 8080 being the holder of the reciprocal title 'first computer clone.' | | | The Altair bears little resemblance to any current computer. |
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http://scott.saskatoon.com/altair8800.shtml
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| | Altair32 Emulator Project - MITS History |
| | The MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, founded in 1968 or 1969 depending on whether you talk to Ed Roberts or Forrest Mims) Altair 8800 was announced on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics. | | | However, the computer was an "open" system and within a year MITS and many other start-ups had created expansion cards (primarily through necessity because of the weak performance of the early MITS memory boards) to make the Altair a viable computing platform. | | | The case was painted a nifty color of "robin's egg blue", playing off of the color used by IBM in the early 70's on its mainframe computers, so as to convey that, yes, the Altair was a "real" computer. |
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http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/Altair32history.htm
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| | MITS Altair 8800 |
| | Though technically not the first personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800 is widely recognized as the first microcomputer and the first PC to be commercially successful. | | | Find out about the history of the MITS Altair, the first personal computer, at this site from William Thomas Sanderson. | | | It came equipped with a 2 Mhz Intel 8080 microprocessor with 256 bytes standard RAM and used an 8" floppy disk drive for storage. |
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http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/computers-and-the-internet_history-and-the-human-experience_handhelds-and-personal-computers_mits-altair.asp
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| | ALTAIR BASIC |
| | L'Altair BASIC, nella sua prima implementazione, il MITS 4K BASIC, fu una pietra miliare nella storia del software — il primo linguaggio di programmazione per il primo vero personal computer, il MITS Altair 8800. | | | Scritto da Bill Gates, Paul Allen, e Monte Davidoff, senza poter accedere ad un computer Altair e neanche ad una CPU Intel 8080. | | | Altair BASIC exhibit at The Online Software Museum (http://museum.sysun.com/museum/alt.html) |
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http://www.24pm-affiliation.com/encyclopedia/A/Altair_BASIC
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| | MITS Altair 8800 |
| | The Altair 8800 was far from the first "Personal Computer" but it was the first truly successful one. | | | These are of the bare MITS 4 slot motherboards as originally shipped with the Altair computers (both top and bottom) and of the Altair front panel. | | | I have one altair 8800 computer i wish to sell fast no resonable offers will be refused. |
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http://www.vintage-computer.com/altair8800.shtml
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| | Altair32 Emulator Project main page |
| | Claus, a programmer working for Microsoft, wrote a 16-bit Windows-based "emulator" for the Altair and IMSAI 8080-based computers. | | | In 1999, I downloaded a copy of a MITS Altair emulator program written for the Windows platform by Claus Giloi. | | | For the longest time, I was only able to find the binary distribution, but no source code. |
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http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/Altair32.htm
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| | The First Personal Computers (PCs) |
| | This BASIC interpreter, which was written by Gates and Allen, was the first reasonably high-level computer language program to be made available on a home computer. | | | Other contenders include MIT's LINC (1963), CTC's Datapoint 2200 (1971), the Kenbak-1 (1971), and the Xerox Alto (1973), but all of these machines were either cripplingly expensive, relatively unusable, or only intended as experimental projects. | | | Even though it only contained a miserly 256 bytes of RAM and the only way to program it was by means of a switch panel, the Altair 8800 proved to be a tremendous success. |
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http://www.maxmon.com/1973ad.htm
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| | Altair 8800 |
| | The Altair 8800 has a Intel 8080 CPU and is sold for 395 U$ or when you want it assembled 498 U$. | | | It is 18" x 17" 7 high and weighs the tremendous amount of 256 bytes (that is a quarter K).It is said that this is the worlds first mini computer to rival commercial models. | | | The parent of this baby are MITS inc. and we call him Altair 8800. |
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http://www.thocp.net/hardware/altair.htm
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| | The History of Computers |
| | The Altair was developed in the mid-seventies and used the 8080 microprocessor developed by Intel. | | | History of Computers: The MITS Altair was the first commercially available personal micro-computer and helped start the Microcomputer Revolution. | | | Early Altair users used a Teletype for a terminal. |
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http://www.cyberiapc.com/cmphistory/altair.htm
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| | ComputerBase - Lexikon: Altair 8800 |
| | Der Altair bestand aus dem von Ed Roberts selbst entwickelten S100-Bus mit Steckplätzen für Erweiterungskarten, einer mit 2 MHz getakteten Intel 8080-CPU und 256 Byte Arbeitsspeicher. | | | Um Altair BASIC gab es später einen Rechtsstreit zwischen Pertec Computer Corporation - die MITS übernahmen - und Microsoft. | | | Ed Roberts soll auf der Suche nach einem Namen für seinen Computer seine Tochter gefragt haben, wie der Computer auf der Enterprise heisst. |
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http://www.computerbase.de/lexikon/Altair_8800
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| | Is the PC 20 years old? |
| | The PC had been around well before that, with hobbyists cobbling together their own "little" computers from kits, such as the MITS Altair 8800 in the mid-1970s. | | | In 1968, Douglas Engelbart, a high-tech pioneer and researcher at what was then the Stanford Research Institute, had some prescient words before demonstrating a few of the ideas he had for such a device. | | | Ultimately, hundreds of companies in Silicon Valley had personal computers, before the industry started consolidating and was winnowed into the smaller number of major players that now exist, such as Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Gateway Inc. and IBM, which is now the No. 3 PC maker. |
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http://www.ciol.com/content/news/trends/101080901.asp
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| | The Mits Altair 8800 by Dan Clarke |
| | The Mits Altair 8800 by Daniel F. Clarke | | | So in conclusion, as I think is universally recognized, the MITS ALTAIR 8800 was a special innovation that changed the world for the better. | | | I graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the University Of New Brunswick (UNB) in 1971 with a taste of university mainframe computing, so anything that looked like electronics and computers together was of special interest. |
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http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/altair/danc.htm
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| | fire in the valley by freiberger and swaine |
| | It's hard to argue about the importance of Ed Roberts and the MITS Altair, a hobbyist computer that set the stage for Apple and the rest. | | | Even those who didn't send in checks saw the Altair article as a sign that they could now have their own computers. | | | The January issue of Popular Electronics signaled to thousands of electronics hobbyists, programmers, and other technophiles that the era of the personal computer had finally arrived. |
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http://www.fireinthevalley.com/fitv_book5.html
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| | Phil Windley's Technometria Wanted: MITS Altair 8800 |
| | I'm looking to buy a MITS Altair 8800 computer if you know anyone who's got one. | | | I’m looking to buy a MITS Altair 8800 computer if you know anyone who’s got one. | | | Posted by windley on October 20, 2005 03:33 PM Tags: vintage, computer, 8080, mits, altair |
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http://www.windley.com/archives/2005/10/wanted_mits_alt.shtml
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| | PC History |
| | The reaction to the Altair was un-expected by either the magazine or by MITS who designed it. | | | It supplanted the Altair A model as the standard S-100 Bus computer. | | | The Imsai 8080 developed by IMS Associates, was designed to use the same bus structure as the Altair 8800 with interchangeable circuit boards. |
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http://www.pc-history.org
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| | Altair 8800 |
| | MITS Logo - The legendary MITS Logo in dim light. | | | I've seen other Altairs that lack these, so I don't know if they are official MITS stuff or not. | | | Click here to view comments about other MITS computers. |
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http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/altair
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| | LookSmart - Directory - MITS Altair 8800 |
| | Read details about the development of components and peripherals for the MITS Altair systems. | | | Posts details on early personal computer kits including the Kenbak-1, the French MICRAL, and Microsoft's first customer, the MITS Altair 8800. | | | Join the Zeal community and help build the "MITS Altair 8800" Directory Category. |
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http://lsxml.looksmart.com/p/browse/us1/us317831/us317876/us280692/us72251/us928985/us10032300
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| | MITS Altair 8800 |
| | Das Ergebnis lief dann bei einer Präsentation bei MITS erstmals auf der echten Hardware des Altair 8800 - fehlerfrei. | | | Daher programmierten sie zunächst einen Emulator für die 8080-CPU des Altair, den sie auf einer PDP-11 des Harvard Computation Center laufen ließen. | | | Der Zusammenbau dauerte mindestens 40 Stunden und erforderte solide Kenntnisse im Umgang mit Mikroelektronik. |
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http://www.homecomputermuseum.de/herst/k59_de.htm
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| | [No title] |
| | In January 1975, Popular Electronics magazine's cover featured a picture of the Altair 8800 computer - the world's first microcomputer which used the new Intel 8080 processor - sold mail order by a tiny company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. | | | People sent checks in sight unseen - completely on the faith they Ed Roberts realized that his Altair 8800 computer needed software - a computer language - to make it really useful. | | | Things never settled down - in one day they sold 200 computers over the phone. |
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http://www.cis.usouthal.edu/faculty/daigle/project1/1975malt.htm
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| | MITS Altair 8800 @ Computer Museum .it |
| | E’ comunque certo che i primi computer scatenarono una rivoluzione senza precedenti, cambiando il destino di molte persone che, per passione o per lavoro, si avvicinarono all’ Altair 8800 e ai suoi successori. | | | Si recavano lì per attendere la consegna di un esemplare di Altair 8800, il primo personal computer venduto in kit. | | | Quello del 1974 fu un Natale particolare per la storia: sul numero di gennaio della rivista “Popular Electronics” appare la recensione dell’ Altair 8800, il primo computer venduto in kit ad un prezzo accessibile a tutti. |
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http://www.computermuseum.it/museum/MITS_Altair_8800.htm
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| | Wired News: 'CompuBots' Draw on PC History |
| | MITSubo 5:The MITS Altair 8800, the machine that started Bill Gates and Microsoft, is transformed into a spider-like bot. | | | The series includes the Mac 512K (or Fat Mac), an Apple Computer Lisa, a Xerox Alto and a MITS Altair 8800. | | | Damer said he hoped the sketches would spark interest in vintage computing. |
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http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63729,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
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| | The Computing Revolution |
| | The Altair 8800 was the first successful personal computer. | | | The computer on the cover is a fake. | | | To everyone's surprise, including the Altair's makers, it was a runaway success. |
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http://www.mos.org/exhibits/ComputingRevolution/pcs/4.html
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| | OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum |
| | MITS made several peripherals and cards for this computer, namely, a video card, a serial card to connect a terminal, a RAM expansion card and a 8" floppy drive that used hard sectored floppies and stored 300 KB. | | | Another computer which had almost the same characteristics was launched by IMSAI and was called IMSAI 8080 (see both in the "Emulators" section). | | | The ALTAIR 8800 had one input port, also called the "Sense Switches" (I/O address 255) which was the left hand 8 address switches. |
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http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=62
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| | 8-Bit-Nirvana: MITS Altair 8800 |
| | Dieser als Bausatz von MITS vertriebene Computer ist schuld ;-) am Aufstieg Microsofts: Bill Gates schrieb (zusammen mit Paul Allen und Monte Davidoff) 1975 einen BASIC-Interpreter für diesen Rechner, Altair BASIC - und das nicht einmal auf der Altair-Hardware, sondern auf Papier und einem Emulator. |
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http://www.zock.com/8-Bit/D_Altair8800.HTML
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| | Apple II History Museum - Computers: Altair 8800 |
| | Although not an Apple product, the MITS Altair 8800 computer was a contemporary of the Apple I, and started the "personal computer" revolution as a do-it-yourself kit advertised on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics. | | | Apple II History Museum - Computers: Altair 8800 | | | The Apple II History is brought to you as a service of foreThought.net, providers of internet services for the value-minded business. |
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http://apple2history.org/museum/computers_apple1/altair8800.html
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| | The SIMH Altair 8800 Z80 simulator |
| | The package below contains a sample collection of sample software for the original Altair 8800 including the famous 4k Basic. | | | Altair Disk Extended Basic Version 300-5-C (made available by Scott LaBombard) | | | Manuals for the Digital Research products can be found in the Tim Olmstead Memorial CP/M Library |
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http://www.schorn.ch/cpm/intro.html
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| | Triumph of the Nerds: A History of the Computer |
| | Popular Electronics features the MITS Altair 8800 on its cover, January 1975. | | | Pictured below: The Homebrew Computer Club in 1975. | | | Thousands of orders for the 8800 rescue MITS from bankruptcy. |
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http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/micro.html
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| | Computer History Museum - Exhibits - Collection Highlights - Altair 8800 |
| | Roberts points out that the Altair increased the installed base of computers in the world by 1% each month during 1975-76. | | | The demand for the $395.00 machine exceeded MITS' wildest expectations. | | | The company was eventually superceded by other, more powerful and flexible computers, in particular a triumvirate of mass-produced, consumer-friendly machines: the Apple II, Commodore PET, and Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80. |
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http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/altair.shtml
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| | AltairComputers.org will be coming back soon! |
| | In the mean time, please visit the Altair Computer Club. | | | Air your comments and suggestions about this site at the Altair Computer Club. | | | Altaircomputers.org will be back soon with most of its original content (we hope). |
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http://altaircomputers.org
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| | The Computer History Simulation Project |
| | Also available is a collection of tools for manipulating simulator file formats and for cross-assembling code for the PDP-1, PDP-7, PDP-8, and PDP-11. | | | MITS Altair 8800, with both 8080 and Z80 |
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http://www.incywincy.com/default?catid=119&cached=simh.trailing-edge.com
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