yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
b274874139
1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
306 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
306 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: MITS ALTAIR 8800
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categories:
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- Computers
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types:
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- Professional Computer
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origins:
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- U.S.A.
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years:
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- '1975'
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cpus:
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- Intel 8080A
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params:
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name: ALTAIR 8800
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image: /media/museum/photos/mits_altair-8800_2.jpg
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company: /companies/mits
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company_name: MITS
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specs:
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- label: NAME
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value: ALTAIR 8800
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- label: MANUFACTURER
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value: MITS
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- label: TYPE
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value: Professional Computer
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- label: ORIGIN
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value: U.S.A.
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- label: YEAR
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value: '1975'
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- label: KEYBOARD
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value: No keyboard, but switches on front panel.
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- label: CPU
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value: Intel 8080A (rarely 8080)
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- label: SPEED
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value: 2 MHz (each instruction takes 4 clock cycles)
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- label: RAM
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value: 256 bytes (you had to buy this memory board)
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- label: ROM
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value: None
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- label: TEXT MODES
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value: None (optional 64 x 12 card)
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- label: GRAPHIC MODES
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value: None
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- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
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value: Unknown
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- label: I/O PORTS
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value: Unknown
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- label: POWER SUPPLY
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value: Unknown
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- label: PRICE
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value: $595
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tabs:
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- photos
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- adverts
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- hardware
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- emulators
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- links
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- docs
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- videos
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forum_thread: 78
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photos:
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- title: LARGE VIEW
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800_system_s1.jpg
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- title: 'FRONT PANEL #1'
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800b_fpanel_1.jpg
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- title: 'FRONT PANEL #2'
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800b_fpanel_2.jpg
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- title: TOP VIEW
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800b_top_1.jpg
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- title: INSIDE
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subtitle: ''
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text: Note that the back plane didn't receive all of its S-100 connectors. Only the CPU board is inserted.
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800b_inside_1.jpg
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- title: ALTAIR PERIPHERALS
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subtitle: ''
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text: Various peripherals including a paper tape reader and 8'' floppy drive units
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800_peripherals_1.jpg
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- title: THE TARBELL CASSETTE INTERFACE
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subtitle: ''
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text: This interface can be used with IMSAI or ALTAIR. It transfers from 187 to 540 bytes / second
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image: /media/museum/photos/tarbell_k7.jpg
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- title: BILL GATES
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subtitle: ''
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text: Bill Gate giving a demonstration of its first BASIC interpreter, written for the Altair 8800.
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800_billgates_1.jpg
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- title: PROGRAM EXAMPLE
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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An example of assembly program user could enter using sense switches.
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Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800_progsample_1.jpg
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- title: PAPER TAPES
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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Original Altair paper tape programs. This Assembler package consisted of a **Monitor**, an **Editor**, an **Assembler** and a **Debugger**.
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Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/photos/altair_8800_papertapes_1.jpg
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adverts:
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- title: FIRST ADVERT
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subtitle: ''
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text: 'This painting was the first and the best known MITS Altair advert. It was created by Kim Behm who has since become a well-known artist. At the first beginning of the personal computers era, this advert seems to be saying: In a near future, everybody around the world will have access to a personal computer.'
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_pub_1.jpg
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- title: 'ADVERT #2'
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subtitle: ''
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text: Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_franklinad_1.jpg
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- title: POPULAR ELECTRONICS
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subtitle: ''
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text: Cover and extracts of a 6 page article in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_popularelectronics_1.jpg
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- title: SHOW BAG
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_bag_1.jpg
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- title: 1976 PRICE LIST
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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Notice that the 16K static RAM expansion is more expensive than the computer itself.
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Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_pricelist_1.jpg
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- title: 1976 XMAS CATALOG
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subtitle: ''
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text: Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_xmascatalog_1.jpg
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- title: 'MITS BROCHURE #1'
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subtitle: ''
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text: Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_brochure_1.jpg
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- title: 'MITS BROCHURE #2'
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_salebrochure_s1.jpg
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- title: ALTAIR 'MOBILE' COURSE
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subtitle: ''
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text: Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_course_1.jpg
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- title: COMPUTER NOTES
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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This fanzine - one of the first of the microcomputers era - was published by the Altair User Group
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Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_compnotes_1.jpg
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- title: ALTAIR CONVENTION
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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The first Altair Convention was here announced in the Computer Notes magazine.
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Thanks to **Mark Thompson**
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_compnotes_2.jpg
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- title: BIT SHOPPER
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subtitle: ''
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text: Spring 1978 issues of Byte Shopper
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image: /media/museum/pubs/altair_8800_bitshopper_1.jpg
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- title: EARLY ADVERT (SEPTEMBER 1975)
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subtitle: ''
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text: from Creative Computing magazine
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image: /media/museum/pubs/mits_altair_pub-creative-compuetug%20sept1975.jpg
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- title: EARLY ADVERT (SEPTEMBER 1975)
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subtitle: ''
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text: from Creative Computing magazine
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image: /media/museum/pubs/mits_altair_pub-creative-computing-sept1975_2.jpg
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- title: EARLY ADVERT (NOVEMBER 1975)
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subtitle: ''
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text: from Creative Computing magazine
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image: /media/museum/pubs/mits_altair_pub-creative-computing-nov1975.jpg
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hardware:
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- title: FLOPPY DISK SYSTEM
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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Advert (March 1977) said:
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"The North Star Micro-Disk System uses the Shugart minifloppy disc drive. The controller is an S-100 compatible PC board with on-board PROM for bootstrap load. It can control up to three drives. With the PROM bootstrap, we provide our powerful extended Basic (10 Kb) with sequential and random disk file accessing.\
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Each 5.25'' diskette has 90k data byte capacity. Basic loads in less than 2 seconds.
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Micro-Disk system (kit) **$699**\
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Micro-Disk system (Assembled) **$799**\
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Additional drive **$425**\
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Diskette **$4.5**"
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image: /media/museum/hardware/altair_8800_fd_1.jpg
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- title: CPU CARD
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/altair_8800_card_cpu_1.jpg
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- title: 1 KB STATIC RAM
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/altair_8800_card_1kstatic_1.jpg
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- title: 4 KB DYNAMIC RAM
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/altair_8800_card_4kdram_1.jpg
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- title: SERIAL I/O CARD
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/altair_8800_card_serialio_1.jpg
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- title: TEST CARD
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subtitle: ''
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text: Tis card was used to test each contact of a S-100 connector
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image: /media/museum/hardware/altair_8800_testconnectorboard.jpg
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- title: US ADVERT (1977)
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subtitle: ''
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text: You could use these joysticks with the Altair or any S100 bus system. They connect to the Cromenco D+7/A I/O board and were meant to play the games available for the Cromenco TV Dazzler, the first video card for personal computer.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/cromenco-joysticks_pub_1-1977.jpg
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emulators:
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- title: SIMH
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url: http://simh.trailing-edge.com/
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platform: Windows
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text: Windows emulator for a lot of mini computers. Sources are available so you can compile them for your own platform.
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- title: Altair and IMSAI Emulators
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url: http://www.threedee.com/jcm/emu8080/index.html
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platform: Other platform
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text: A list of Altair / IMSAI emulators
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links:
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- title: Altair 8800 brochures
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url: http://altair.ftldesign.com/
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text: 1974 - 1976 Altair 8800 Brochures and Price Lists
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- title: 'Computers : from the past to present'
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url: http://www.eingang.org/Lecture/altair.html
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text: Altair page
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- title: The Virtual Altair Museum
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url: http://www.virtualaltair.com/
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text: Infos about MITS/Pertec Altair 8800/680b/MITS 300/Attache systems
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docs:
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- title: OPERATOR'S MANUAL
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url: http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp
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cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/mits_altair8800_operator-manual.jpg
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text: |-
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[**OPERATOR'S MANUAL**](http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp)written by MITS
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compiled/archived by Robert Krten\
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type of document : PDF\
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size : 5,5 MB\
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source : [www.1000bit.net](http://www.1000bit.net)
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- title: ASSEMBLY MANUAL
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url: http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp
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cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/mits_altair8800_assembly-manual.jpg
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text: |-
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[**ASSEMBLY MANUAL**](http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp)written by MITS
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compiled/archived by Robert Krten\
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type of document : PDF\
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size : 7 MB\
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source : [www.1000bit.net](http://www.1000bit.net)
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- title: THEORY OF OPERATIONS - MANUAL & SCHEMATICS
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url: http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp
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cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/mits_altair8800_theory-of-operation.jpg
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text: |-
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[**THEORY OF OPERATIONS - MANUAL & SCHEMATICS**](http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp)written by MITS
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compiled/archived by Robert Krten\
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type of document : PDF\
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size : 387 KB\
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source : [www.1000bit.net](http://www.1000bit.net)
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- title: VARIOUS SCHEMATICS
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url: http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp
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cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/mits_altair8800_schematics.jpg
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text: |-
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[**VARIOUS SCHEMATICS**](http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp)written by MITS
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compiled/archived by Robert Krten\
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type of document : PDF\
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size : 936 KB\
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source : [www.1000bit.net](http://www.1000bit.net)
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videos:
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- title: MITS Altair 8800 demonstration
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url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAhp_LzvSWk
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text: 'Length: 8 min 45 s'
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- title: How the Altair 8800 started the PC revolution
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url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwfDA4watU
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text: 'Length: 7 min 40 s'
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- title: ALTAIR 8800 -The Computer that started Microsoft
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url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4xHCW9YCQ
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text: 'Length: 3 min 14 s'
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related:
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- /museum/imsai-8080
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oc_id: 62
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source:
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230413211213/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=62
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date: '2023-04-13'
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---
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This computer was one of the first "home" computers ever made, it was sold as a kit, but for additional money, you could buy one fully assembled.
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It had no keyboard, the "program" had to be entered with the switches located on the front panel of the "computer", and as it didn't have video output (yet), the result was displayed via LEDs.
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Another computer which had almost the same characteristics was launched by IMSAI and was called [IMSAI 8080](/museum/imsai-8080/) (see both in the "Emulators" section).
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The ALTAIR 8800 had one input port, also called the "Sense Switches" (I/O address 255) which was the left hand 8 address switches. Address 255 was also used on the IMSAI. The IMSAI front panel differed from the Altair in that you could also output to port 255 to a displayed LED buffer above the sense switches - a feature the Altair did not have (it only had input). The Altair sense switch were used during boot into Altair DOS to specify the terminal port to the DOS.
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MITS made several peripherals and cards for this computer, namely, a video card, a serial card to connect a terminal, a RAM expansion card and a 8" floppy drive that used hard sectored floppies and stored 300 KB.
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Several models were launched, they had the same characteristics except the CPU (8080 and later 8080A).
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Believe it or not, the name "Altair" comes from Star Trek! The young daughter of the 'Popular Electronics' magazine editor gave it the name of the destination planet of the Enterprise from the episode she was watching.
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