Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems: Difference between revisions

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'''Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems''' ('''MITS''') was an American electronics company founded in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]] that began manufacturing electronic [[calculator]]s in 1971 and personal [[computers]] in 1975.<ref name = "CC Nov 1984">{{cite magazine | last = Mims | first = Forrest M. | title = The Altair story: the early days at MITS | magazine = Creative Computing | volume = 10 | issue = 11 | page = 17 | date = November 1984 | url = http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/17_The_Altair_story_early_d.php | access-date = 2009-07-27 | archive-date = 2007-04-08 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070408035039/http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/17_The_Altair_story_early_d.php | url-status = dead }}</ref>

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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.