ALTAIR 8800 micro Users Manual
© Briel Computers 2010 page 7
The second letter was sent out to all major computer publications after a very strong negative response from
many in the field.
In late 1975 Imsai released the 8080 as a direct competing clone of the Altair. Most feel that the Imsai was a
better machine than the Altair and used the same bus expansion scheme. It wasn’t long before several other
companies also had clones using the S100 bus system. This led to several aftermarket companies developing
hardware add-on cards for the S100 bus systems.
By 1977 MITS had reached $6 million in sales when they were sold to Pertec. The company was soon merged
into the larger company (Pertec) and the name abandoned. The S100 bus system computers continued to be sold
well into the mid 80’s and I remember as late as 1990 still seeing ads for S100 boards in magazines.
The Altair 8800 is an icon for the start of the home computing industry. Long live the blinking lights :.::.:
Vince Briel
To Next Page
Loading...