From Rockets to the Altair: The Rise and Fall of MITS
MITS: Rockets, Calculators, and Personal Computers
Henry Edward Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems to fund his dream of owning a plane and attending medical school. After struggling with model rocketry products, the company pivoted to electronics, finding success with the 816 calculator. Facing debt and a shifting market, Roberts took a massive gamble on the Altair 8800 microcomputer, a bold move that would define the personal computing era.
Still, it was try or allow the company to go bankrupt since calculators were no longer profitable.
- ricksunny
Forrest M. Mims III wrote a series of electronics hobbyist booklets. Thanks to an engineer older brother (who could actually comprehend the details of these books while I couldn’t) I grew up with these books around the house (among many other technical books - viz. same brother). I had no idea that Mims had been with USAF at Kirtland. (nor that Microsoft’s first office was Albuquerque).
If this is all described in Mountain View’s Computer History Museum, I missed it.
- kristianp
> 1976 at the West Coast Computer Faire.
According to wikipedia, the first "Faire" was in 1977 (where the Apple II was demonstrated). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Computer_Faire
- slwvx
That's an enjoyable read!