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== Calculators ==
[[File:MITS Calculator 1200 Series 1973 advertisement.jpg|thumb|right| Sales had reached $100,000 per month when this advertisement ran in March 1973.]]
Ed Roberts' interest in computers began in high school when he built a simple digital computer from relays. His first real experience with computers came while at [[Oklahoma State University]] where engineering students had free access to an [[IBM 1620]] computer. Roberts' office at Weapons Laboratory had the state of the art [[Hewlett-Packard 9100A]] programmable calculator in 1968. In July 1970, a semiconductor company, [[Electronic Arrays]], announced a set of six LSI ICs that would make a four-function calculator.<ref name = "EAS100">{{cite journal | title = New Products: Do-it-yourself Electronic Calculator | journal = Computer | volume = 3 | issue = 6 | pages =38–41 | publisher = IEEE | date = November 1970 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GJ2wAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Electronic+Arrays%22+Calculator | doi = 10.1109/C-M.1970.216730 | quote = Electronic Arrays has developed the EAS100, a set of MOS LSI circuits for a 16 digit calculator with 8 digit display capability.| url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref name = "Calculator Patent">{{US patent reference | number = 3800129 | y = 1974 | m = 03 | d = 26 | inventor = Richard H. Umstattd | title = MOS Desk Calculator}} The Electronic Arrays, Inc. calculator chip set that was used in the MITS 816 calculator.</ref> Roberts was determined to design a calculator kit.
To fund the new project, Roberts sold 15% of MITS to fellow Air Force officer, Lieutenant William Yates. He also got an investment from another Weapons Laboratory officer, Major Ed Laughlin. Several other officers and scientists at the lab were interested in this state of the art calculator kit and helped with the design. Forrest Mims wrote the assembly manual in return for a calculator kit.
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| publisher = Bonnier Corporation }}ADM-3A Terminal cost $795 (kit) and $895 (assembled).</ref> Most of these computers had a front panel with toggle switches for entering data and lights for displaying it. These were normally used to boot the computer and to diagnose problems.
The Altair 8800 kit came with a front panel, a CPU board with the Intel 8080 microprocessor, 256 bytes of RAM, a 4-slot backplane and an 8-amp power supply for $439.<ref name = "MITS Price List">{{cite magazine | author = MITS |date=August 1975 | title = Worlds Most Inexpensive BASIC language system |magazine= Popular Electronics | volume = 8 | issue = 2 | page =1 | publisher = Ziff Davis}}</ref> A 1k byte memory board was $176 and the 4k byte board was $264. The serial interface board was $124 and the parallel interface was $119. The Teletype Model 33 ASR was $1500. There was a special price for an 8k byte system with [[Altair BASIC]] ([[Microsoft]]'s first ever product) for $995. [[Bill Gates]] and [[Paul Allen]] wrote [[Altair BASIC]] with [[Monte Davidoff]] contributing the [[Floating-point arithmetic]] routines. [[Altair BASIC]] initial developed from February 1975 to May 1975 and announced by MITS in July 1975, the 4k version on paper tape for $150, the 8k version with cassette support for $200 and the Extended 16k version with disk support (December 1975) for $350. To encourage selling more boards, Altair BASIC was discounted to $60, $75, $150 respectively, when bundled with 4k, 8k and I/O boards
When the January 1975 issue of ''Popular Electronics'' reached readers in mid December 1974, MITS was flooded with orders. They had to hire extra people just to answer the phones. In February, MITS received 1,000 orders for the Altair 8800. The quoted delivery time was 60 days but it was many more months before the machines were shipped. By August 1975, they had shipped over 5,000 computers.<ref name = "Byte Oct 1975">{{cite magazine | last = Green | first = Wayne |date=October 1975 | title = From the Publisher .. Are they real? |magazine= BYTE | volume = 1 | issue = 2 |pages=61, 81, 87 | publisher = Green Publishing}} In August 1975, Wayne Green visited several personal computer manufacturers. A photo caption in his trip report says; "Meanwhile, at MITS, over 5,000 Altair 8800's have been shipped. Here is a view of part of the production line."</ref>
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The Altair products were merged into the Pertec line and the MITS facility was used to produce the PCC-2000 small-business computer. The Albuquerque plant was closed in December 1980 and the production was moved to Pertec plants in Irvine, California.<ref name = "InfoWorld Dec 1980">{{cite magazine | last = Milewski | first = Richard | title = Last Vestige of Mits Closes |magazine= InfoWorld | volume = 2 | issue = 22 | page =7 | date = December 8, 1980 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mD4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT6 | issn = 0199-6649 | publisher = InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.}}</ref>
By the end of 1977 Roberts left MITS and returned to Georgia to be a gentleman farmer. He studied medicine at [[Mercer University]] in Macon, Georgia and graduated with a [[M.D.]] in 1986. Roberts practiced medicine in [[Cochran, Georgia]]
== Works cited ==
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