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[[Ed Roberts (computer engineer)|Ed Roberts]] and [[Forrest Mims]] founded MITS in December 1969 to produce miniaturized [[telemetry]] modules for model rockets such as a roll rate sensor.<ref name = " Model Rocketry Apr 1970" >{{cite journal | last = Mandell | first = Gorden | title = From the launching pad | journal = Model Rocketry | volume = 2 | issue = 9 | page = 5 | publisher = Model Rocketry, Inc | ___location = Cambridge, MA | date = April 1970 | url = http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/ModelRocketry/ModelRocketry.html }}The editor describes the first MITS modules with photo of the units.</ref> In 1971, Roberts redirected the company into the electronic calculator market and the MITS 816 desktop calculator kit was featured on the November 1971 cover of ''[[Popular Electronics]]''.<ref name="MITS 816"/> The calculators were very successful and sales topped one million dollars in 1973. A brutal calculator price war left the company deeply in debt by 1974.
Roberts then developed the first commercially successful [[microcomputer]], the [[Altair 8800]], which was featured on the January 1975 cover of ''Popular Electronics''. Hobbyists flooded MITS with orders for the $397 computer kit. [[Paul Allen]] and [[Bill Gates]] saw the [[magazine]] and began writing [[software]] for the Altair, later called [[Altair BASIC]].<ref name="BBCTL">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5085630.stm|title=Bill Gates: A Timeline|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date=July 15, 2006|
MITS's annual sales had reached $6 million by 1977 when they were acquired by [[Pertec Computer]]. The operations were soon merged into the larger company and the MITS brand disappeared. Roberts retired to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] where he studied medicine and became a small town medical doctor.<ref name = "AJC 1997">{{cite news | last = Emerson | first = Bo | title = Doctor of Invention: Computer pioneer keeping it personal as a small-town doc | work = The Atlanta Journal Constitution | page = M.01 | date = April 27, 1997}}</ref>
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