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The Altair 8800


A brief Altair History

MITS Altair 8800 Computer

The MITS Altair 8800 is considered by many to be the first “personal computer.” The Altair was designed by Ed Roberts, the owner and president of Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS), in 1974 and sold as a kit for the cost of $439. The core of Altair was the use of the Intel 8080 microprocessor. The 8080 normally sold for over $300 each but Roberts was able to acquire cosmetically blemished versions of 8080 for $75 each in large volumes. These versions worked just as well as the more expensive ones, allowing the Altair 8800 to be released at a more affordable price. At first the popularity of Altair was limited. This all changed with the release of the January1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Within a month orders for the Altair jump dramatically. MITS couldn’t keep up with demand and some buyers camped in the company’s car park waiting for their machines.


While in 1975 the Altair was considered cutting edge, by today’s standard, the Altair was limited. The 8080 microprocessors ran at a clock speed of only 2MHz. The unit shipped with only 256 bytes of RAM but was expandable to 64K bytes. Storage was punched paper tape, cassette tape or as show here 8-inch floppy drive. When first released, programming and data input/output on the Altair was via the many switches and LEDs on the front panel.

The Altair Clone
The Altair Clone Computer

The original MITS Altair 8800 has been out of production for over 40 years. The few remaining units have become expensive collector items. A working vintage unit in good condition now brings more than $4000 on eBay. Enthusiasts wishing to live the Altair experience had a dilemma.  Using their expensive, vintage computer could put it at risk. Then there are enthusiasts who wish to revisit the Altair experience but do not wish to pay for an expensive vintage unit. 

Enter the Altair 8800 Clone.

The Altair Clone duplicates the look, feel, features and performance of the original Altair 8800 down to its limitations and quirks. The clone will run software written for the original Altair 8800. The Clone is less expensive and much easier to keep running than a vintage computer.  Best of all, one does not need to be concerned about breaking a vintage unit. Click on picture to visit the Altair Clone web site.