Altair 8800 im computer history museum in mountain view. Altair 8800 computer, altair 32 emulator, altair front. I noticed the altair 8800 reproduction and the 680 the 8800micro is a bit less authentic, but looks both less expensive and more approachable. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred buildityourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the. The altair 8800, was first featured in the january and february 1975 editions of popular electronics magazine, although this early design bore little resemblance to the finalized version released just a few months later. Famously, the january 1975 edition of popular electronics featured the altair 8800. Altair 8800 front panel for an 8080 emulator hackaday. The colors are wrong, but you can see the actual logo better. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Entry of very simple program via the altair 8800 front panel to demonstrate singlestepping and running a program, and what can be learned from the address lights while a program runs. The virtual altair museum contains information about the altair 8800, altair 8800a, altair 8800b, altair 8800b turnkey, icom attache, altair 680b, altair 680b turnkey, icom cp6800, altair8800bsm, altair 8800bdm, mits, pertec, icom microperipherals, mits 30025 business system, mits 30055 business system. Volume includes ads for swtpc ct1024 terminal and mitscope. Altair 8800 metadata this file contains additional information such as exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. Altair 8800 computer an intel 8080based machine made by mits.
Paul allen and bill gates to start a company they called microsoft. Complete collection of popular electronics 19541982 as. Popular electronics, all issues online, for free ocsmag. The altair or altair 8800 computer from mits was developed by henry edward roberts and introduced on december 19, 1974. Aug 09, 2012 the second is a disk test that enables the drive and loads th.
Additionally, the due can save data to the flash memory at run time. To follow are selections relevant to mits altair 8800. Popular electronics 19541982 available as pdf downloads 26 november 2014 by matt w1mst share tweet leave a comment 17 ive discovered an archive of several older electronics and radiorelated magazines available for download in pdf format. I first learned about the altair 8800 when reading about it in the book the innovators by walter isaacson. The altair 5x multigas detector for lel, o 2and toxic gas detection is as tough and functional as it looks. Feb 14, 2020 source code for arduino altair 8800 simulator.
He was the founder of mits in 1969, and the designer of mits altair 8800 computer in 1975 which included the altair bus, the 100 pin connectored backplane which became known as the s100 bus within a few years. Popular electronics 19541982 available as pdf downloads. This file is licensed under the creative commons attributionshare alike 2. The altair 8800 included an intel 8080 processor, 1024 word memory boards with 256 bytes of memory expandable to 64 k. During my visit, i typed in two short basic programs, and was delighted to find that they ran well and made a tremendous noise on the teletype. Popular electronics described its article as a project, and implied that you. It appeared on the cover of the january 1975 popular electronics magazine with an article probably by leslie solomon. It was later published on the front cover of popular electronics in 1975 making it almost instantly a huge success. A small new mexico company with the big name of micro. Roms instead of manually flipping all the switches to load code into the altair people installed rom chips or only programmed a bootloader by hand which then would load the rest of the data from papertape, casette or disk. Popular electronics gave jerry ogden a column, computer bits, starting in june 1975. The most important computer magazine in the history of computer. This image appears on the cover of the january 1975 popular electronics magazine. Popular electronics, january 1975, volume 7, number 1.
This machine belonged to my father, who knew les soloman, and was able. The front panel hardware is a lifesized replica of the original altair 8800 operators front panel. One of the systems in the vintage computers collection is the mits altair 8800, which is connected to a teletype. The order of the manuals below is the order in the altair 8800 reproduction kit binder. Leslie solomon was an editor at popular electronics who had a knack for spotting kits that would interest people and. Please visit the stockly electronics forums for a discussion of this kit.
One of the editors, les solomon, knew mits was working on an intel 8080. Altair 8800 article about altair 8800 by the free dictionary. Nov 26, 2014 popular electronics 19541982 available as pdf downloads 26 november 2014 by matt w1mst share tweet leave a comment 17 ive discovered an archive of several older electronics and radiorelated magazines available for download in pdf format. The mits altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the intel 8080 cpu and sold by mail order through advertisements in popular electronics, radioelectronics and other hobbyist magazines. The altair 8800 was the first commercially successful microcomputer. Since my emulator is running slower than the origial altair 8800 you might need to change the line lxi b,0eh to lxi b,0h.
Mits altair 8800 computer steves computer collection. The first working machine had gone missing in the post. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred buildityourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. Altair basic is a discontinued interpreter for the basic programming language that ran on the mits altair 8800 and subsequent s100 bus computers. Altair basic was the start of the microsoft basic product range. In january 1975 this computer kit made its appearance on the cover of the popular electronics magazine i wasnt evern born back then. Apr 27, 20 entry of very simple program via the altair 8800 front panel to demonstrate singlestepping and running a program, and what can be learned from the address lights while a program runs. A rugged, rubberized polycarbonate housing provides unsurpassed durability, including the.
This text free ad echoes old russian propaganda posters. I also came across this ebay auction for a clone that looks like it just has more broken out to switches and leds itd be loads of fun to attempt building my own from scratch like this one. From the collection, a scannedin computerrelated document. Altair32, an emulator for altair 8800 running on the java os. Altair front panel just the front panel, in dim light so you can see the lights. It doesnt offer much, but its the small start of a big trend toward small things.
The altair 8800 is a computer kit based on the intel 8080 cpu, designed by micro instrumentation and telemetry systems mits, which was headed by h. Up until this point, mits was known for selling calculators and model rocket components telemetry. Despite looking nothing like what we would today consider to be a computer, it sold thousands of units almost immediately upon its launch, way. Processor the altair 8800 was designed for 8bit processor with support for some 16bit operations 2mhz max clock speed implemented with 6m nmos required 12v, 5v, and 5v rails due to poor electrical design 64kib max addressable memory. In fact, if you read through the editorial on page 6 of feb 1973, the predictions made are interesting. Inside the altair 8800 vintage computer 5 page 5 zdnet. Altair 8800 computer, altair 32 emulator, altair front panel. Weve added this product to our database but we havent actually tested it yet. Its small, easy to assemble, and in its minimal configuration is very useful. Oddly, the price for the kit version is the same because it turned out to actually be. Shipping via freight is possible, but may be quite. The panel connects to the host computer over a universal serial bus connection and all power for the panel is drawn from the usb host controller in the host pc. The mits altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the intel 8080 cpu and sold by mail order through advertisements in popular electronics, radio electronics and other hobbyist magazines.
Heres an ad featuring the altair family circa october 1976. It became the firstever commercially successful personal computer, especially compared to the first microprocessorbased personal computer micral. Has anyone tried out any of the altair clones or replicas. View and download mits altair 8800 operators manual online. By clicking on the page, you can download a full scale jpg. Contribute to dhanselaltair8800 development by creating an account on github. January 1975 popular electronics the issue that introduced the mits altair 8800. The second is a disk test that enables the drive and loads th.
Altair front view of front and top in strong light. The pdf is in the cisc367 directory in the members area. Amongst them, the full run of the legendary popular electronics. The altair 8800 was, to its creators, a surprise hit. In the editorial of this issue the altair is announced as a home computer. It was microsofts first product as microsoft, distributed by mits under a contract. The altair was the first popular microcomputer kit. We scanned the pages related to the altair 8800 for the interested collector. The altair 8800 the first machine to run the microsoft software. The altair 8800 came with 32k of ram on 4 seals electronics 8k static ram cards. Mits altair 8800 photos, specs, and price engadget. The january 1975 issue of popular electronics featured the altair 8800 on the cover, otherwise known as the blinky box that launched a revolution, the machine that made microsoft a. The january 1975 issue of popular electronics, with its cover proclaiming project breakthrough. The altair 680 comes with 1k of memory, 256 bytes of system monitor rom, and 768 bytes of vtl2 very tiny language rom.
It seems to run properly with these, but i cant imagine that the power supply supported this much draw. Leslie solomon was an editor at popular electronics who had a knack for spotting kits that would interest people and make them buy the magazine. Apr 12, 2015 the january 1975 issue of popular electronics featured the altair 8800 on the cover, otherwise known as the blinky box that launched a revolution, the machine that made microsoft a software. Altairduino the lowcost altair 8800 machina speculatrix. It seems to run properly with these, but i cant imagine that. Dec 20, 2019 the altair 8800 came with 32k of ram on 4 seals electronics 8k static ram cards. That makes it possible to use any portion of the 512k flash not used by the simulator itself for permanent storage. This desk is from a mits 30025 turnkey system and would make a great accompaniment for the other altair systems. Znpootto 2 m logic, fzectric logtc numbe r terns binar, y system. The magazine was keen to give its readers a home computer project because a rival had already done so. The altair 8800, from micro instrumentation telemetry systems mits of albuquerque, nm, was first featured in the january 1975 edition of popular electronics. The arduino due has plenty of memory to support a full 64kb of emulated ram and runs much faster than the mega. The cover shows the altair 8800, the seminal personal computer to rival.
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