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19 September 2003

Looking back on nearly three decades of personal computing

by Forrest M. Mims, III
Geronimo Creek Observatory
Seguin, Texas

Last week I wrote about MITS, Inc., the little company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that began the personal computer era. MITS was on the verge of bankruptcy in the fall of 1974 when MITS president Ed Roberts called. Roberts and I were good friends. He and I had co-founded MITS along with Stan Cagle and Bob Zaller in 1969. But Cagle, Zaller and I eventually grew weary of the long hours, which we put in on top of our Air Force research jobs. We eventually sold our shares back to Roberts for $100 each. When I left the Air Force to become a freelance writer, I continued working with Roberts to develop kits and write manuals.

By 1973 Roberts was on the way to becoming a major manufacturer of electronic calculators. MITS introduced the first kit calculators, and I wrote their assembly manuals. But Texas Instruments entered the calculator business, and in late 1974 MITS was facing bankruptcy.

One evening an excited Ed called to say he had something important to show me. "Can you swing by now?" he asked. I hopped on my bicycle and was at MITS within a few minutes. I found Ed in the workshop area. He could barely contain his enthusiasm when he showed me a blue and gray box lined with switches and flickering red lights. It was a real digital computer. Data and programs had to be entered in binary using the panel switches since the machine had no keyboard. And instead of a monitor screen, data were read out from the row of red lights. But it was a real computer that MITS would sell in kit form for an unbelievable bargain price of only $399. Ed asked me to write the instruction manual in exchange for a computer, and I instantly accepted.

MITS got its start when Popular Electronics magazine published articles I wrote about kits that MITS sold by mail order. When Popular Electronics magazine named the new kit computer the Altair 8800 and featured it on the cover of its January 1975 issue, they forever changed the world of hobby electronics. MITS was flooded with orders.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen were among the many thousands who were dazzled by the Popular Electronics cover story. Being skilled programmers, they instinctively knew that the arrival of the Altair had opened the world of computing to everyday people. Before they even had an Altair to work with, they began writing software for it. Within a few months they left Harvard and moved to Albuquerque to work with MITS. Ed gave them office space, and they established a tiny company called Microsoft.

Within two years Roberts had sold 5,000 Altairs and rescued MITS from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Roberts began fulfilling his ambitions by learning to fly. I'll never forget the view the crystal clear night we flew over downtown Albuquerque in MITS's new two-engine aircraft. In 1980, Roberts sold MITS and fulfilled his remaining ambitions by becoming a millionaire, buying a 900-acre farm in Georgia and becoming a medical doctor.

Meanwhile, the software Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed for the Altair blossomed into an industry of its own. The Altair had spawned many competitors, all of whom wanted to use Altair software. Microsoft was happy to sell them the rights. Even IBM, which had bought some early Altairs, came knocking. With a giant head start over the competition, Microsoft guaranteed its place in the personal computer software business, eventually making Bill Gates the world's wealthiest person.

In 1985, Dr. Uta Merzbach, then the mathematics curator from the Smithsonian Institution, called. She was intrigued by the early history of personal computing and asked to visit my home. She wanted everything I had connected with MITS. After two visits, I gave her my Altair and a complete set of MITS documents. She even took the language translating computer I built for a high school science fair project.

My Altair has been on display at the Smithsonian for more than a decade now. Occasionally I receive calls from historians writing books about the early history of the PC. They all agree that Ed Roberts paved the way for personal computing years ahead of Apple, IBM, Tandy and all the other late comers. Long before any of these companies had a PC, there were MITS personal computer stores, a MITS newsletter, and an annual Altair computer convention. Personal computers would have eventually arrived on our desktops without MITS. But Ed Roberts speeded up their arrival by at least several years. He also understood the vital importance of the Altair software developed by the two-man company called Microsoft. Ed Roberts' Altair and Bill Gates' software made Ed a millionaire and Bill a billionaire.

Forrest M. Mims III is an independent scientist, writer and photographer.

This feature was originally published in Forrest Mims's weekly science column in the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, Seguin, Texas. The column is written for a general audience.