MITS Altair 8800a Microcomputer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1976
name: label: maker
content: Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
notes: label: Description
content: Not long after Intel introduced its 8080 chip, a small firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) announced a computer kit called the Altair, which met the social as well as technical requirements for a small personal computer. MITS succeeded where other, more established firm had failed, and it was their machine that inaugurated the personal computer age. MITS got its start in computing in 1971, when it introduced an electronic calculator kit. Several thousand sold before 1974, when the sharp reduction in calculator prices drove the company out of that market. It then introduced the Altair 8800 in early 1975. By October of 1976 it was offering two improved models - the Altair 8800a (this machine) and the Altair 8800b. The 8800a was a minor upgrade, including a better power supply and a different shape to the toggle switches used to program the machine.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: "Altair 8800a Technical Information," <I>Byte</I>, issue 14, October, 1976, pp. 23-24. the Altair 8800b is discussed in ad ad on pp. 39-40 of the same issue. The 8800b is also mentioned in theSeptember 1976 issue.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jon Titus
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0891.36
label: accession number
content: 1991.0891
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0891.36
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Microcomputer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 16 3/4 in x 17 1/2 in; 17.78 cm x 42.545 cm x 44.45 cm