Approx. Value : $1200
First year of production : 1975
Manufacturer : MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems)
Number Produced: Unknown
Description :
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 unit shown here has an 8" floppy disk drive.
From InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions:
It was the Altair 8800, on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics, that really set off the (personal computer) boom. A company called MITS, in Albuquerque, sold the Altair for $395 as a kit and $495 assembled. Within three months 4,000 people had ordered it.
From Landmarks In Digital Computing: A Smithsonian Pictorial History:
Hobbyists who successfully put together their Altairs ended up with a blue, box-shaped machine that measured 17x18x7 inches. To enter programs or data, one set the toggle switches on the front. There was no keyboard, video terminal or paper tape reader. All programming was in the machine code of binary digits. The first Altairs came with only 256 bytes of memory; they also lacked output devices such as printers. Results of a program were indicated by the pattern of flashing lights on the front panel.
Links : Tom Sanderson's Virtual Altair Museum