The Altair 8800 launches the hobbyist personal computer
A magazine cover story sells a computer kit with no keyboard and no screen
Quick facts
- Maker
- MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems)
- Designer
- Ed Roberts
- Price
- $297 (kit) / $395 (with case)
- Processor
- Intel 8080
What happened
A small Albuquerque firm called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), which had previously sold electronic calculator kits before a price war wiped out that market, put its new computer kit on the cover of Popular Electronics magazine's January 1975 issue. The Altair 8800, built around Intel's 8080 processor, sold for $297 unassembled or $395 with a case, came with just 256 bytes of memory, and had no keyboard or screen; users entered programs by flipping switches and read results from blinking lights. Orders poured in regardless, and MITS co-founder Ed Roberts, who designed the machine, is credited with coining the term 'personal computer.'
Why it matters
The Altair proved a market existed for computers bought by individuals rather than institutions, even one this stripped-down, and its open bus design became the S-100 standard that let a growing ecosystem of hobbyist hardware and software, including an early version of Microsoft's BASIC, plug into the same machine.
How we know
The Computer History Museum's 1975 timeline entry and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History both document the Popular Electronics cover story, the price, and MITS's role in starting the personal computer era.
Sources
- Computer History Museum (Timeline of Computer History). 1975 · Reputable sourcecomputerhistory.org · The domain "computerhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Altair 8800 Microcomputer · Reputable sourceamericanhistory.si.edu · The domain "americanhistory.si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.
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