The Altair 8800 used a microprocessor, the 8080, and came to public prominence in Jan. 1975 in Popular Electronics magazine: "World's First Minicomptuer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." I have the original magazine from that era and I remember this quite well as it brought attention to a mass-consumer audience - a device called a microcomputer though not what PE called it! Here in Canada the price was very expensive but I had a dear friend, an electronics engineer, who purchased one. It was very limited, hardware and software-wise, and my friend found it a ‘nightmare’ to build but what a momentous reward when it finally worked. To this 23 year-old it certainly sparked my interest with what we now call classical computing.
Happy computing all. 🙂 On Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 11:53 AM Tarek Hoteit via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > I managed to find and buy a fair copy of the magazine on eBay for $150 two > weeks ago. > > Regards, > Tarek Hoteit, PhD > Principal AI Consultant > https://tarek.computer > > INFOCOM AI https://infocom.ai > > > > On Apr 27, 2024, at 07:42, wh.sudbrink--- via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > I'm sorry to hear that. Some of the best parts of my S100 collection > came to me by way of either "please take care of this for me" or "come get > this or it goes to the dump". Remember the old "classic computer rescue > list"? I suppose I've been fortunate that I have had storage space and a > sympathetic spouse. > > On Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 10:14:35 AM EDT, Bill Gunshannon via > cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > > > > >> On 4/27/2024 7:43 AM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > >> Magazine cover january, and into 1975 the revolution. So I'd say all > >> year. Not one specific date > > > > I had that magazine. Wish I hadn't thrown it away oh so many > > years ago. > > > > But even at that, nothing for me to celebrate. I couldn't afford > > one then and I still can't afford one. The same goes for the > > IMSAI-8080. And the Heath H-8 falls into the same category. :-( > > > > bill > > >
