Altair 8800

The 1975 hobbyist kit computer on the cover of Popular Electronics, whose demand for a BASIC launched Microsoft.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Ed Roberts's MITS sold it for $439 as a kit — thousands ordered sight unseen.
• Paul Allen and Bill Gates wrote Altair BASIC for it and founded Microsoft to sell it.
• It had no keyboard or screen: switches in, lights out.