ROBERTS, Edward

Roberts (Roberts), Edward, an American electronics engineer, creator of the first commercial personal computer Altair.

The first computer built, while still a teenager. In 1969, while serving the U.S. Air Force, created a private company e-MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) in Albuquerque. In 1971, the magazine Popular Electronics, the company introduced a build electronic calculator, the price of 179 dollars, which brought us the first tangible profits. When sales of calculators have declined because of increased competition, Roberts decided to switch to the production model based PC just appeared for 8-bit microprocessor Intel 8080.

At the end of 1974 in the same journal MITS introduced a set of self-assembly of the computer for only $ 360, sent by mail. Altair had no display, no keyboard and had a storage capacity of 256 bytes. Entering the information carried in binary form through the tedious Toggle switches, and when the computer shuts down all the information lost. Despite the complexity of the assembly, inconvenient administration and the lack of software called Altair real excitement among enthusiasts. Important role in promoting the model played a young programmer Paul Allen and Bill Gates, who wrote BASIC for the Intel 8080, which made it possible to amateur programmers to create their applications.

The huge success of Altair computer marked the birth of a new industry - the production of personal computers.