The Altair 8800 made its debut in an article that appeared on the cover of the December 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. Within two months the little company MITS, was struggling with thousands of orders. The computer came in kit form and required quite a bit of work and skill to assemble. Users would enter their programs in binary by flipping switches on the front panel of the machine. The output could be read in binary on the LEDs. No software was available for the little machine and users would have to write their own.
The basic unit had only 256 bytes of RAM and cost $395. This configuration made the little machine virtually useless for any real problem solving. However the system was designed to be expandable with a bus that allowed plug in cards. The bus was to set the standard for the next 5 years (S-100). Within months expansion boards were available to add more memory and attach terminals or teleprinters. One of the most popular peripherals was the Teletype corporations ASR-33 teletype. The ASR-33 provided a printer, keyboard, and storage device (paper tape).
The company (MITS) would subsequently release newer versions (8800a, 8800b) with more slots and other enhancements. The 8800a is shown and looked identical to the original 8800 with the exception of the logo name plate.
