Ed Roberts, MITS, and the Altair 8800

Birth

Sep 13, 1941

Henry Edward Roberts was born on September 13, 1941 to parents Henry Melvin Roberts, and Edna Wilcher Roberts.

Enrolls in Biology major at the University of Miami

Sep 1, 1960

https://www.classiccomputing.com/Classic_Computing/Blog/Entries/2010/10/10_Remembering_Ed_Roberts.html

Enlists in the United States Air Force

May 1, 1962

Ed Roberts put his college dreams on hold in order to support his family by enlisting in the US. Air Force.

Earns His Electrical Engineering Degree

May 20, 1968

Ed Roberts earned his electrical engineering degree from Oklahoma State University. He was also involved in Eta Kappa Nu, a national honor society for electrical electronics engineers.

Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force

Jun 1, 1968

After completing his degree as a part of the Air Force's Airman Education Commissioning Program he returned to the Air Force as a second lieutenant. He was assigned to the Laser Division of the Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico..

MITS company is formed

Dec 1, 1969

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) was formed by Ed Roberts and his friend Forrest Mims III to sell electronic kits for model rockets.

First Calculator Kit Launches

Nov 1, 1971

the MITS Model 816 was featured by the Popular Electronics Magazine. The kit sold for $179 and the assembled version cost $275.

MITS Goes Public

Jan 11, 1973

Finding it difficult to compete with larger office equipment and semiconductor companies, Ed takes the company public with a stock offering of 500,000 shares at $1 per share. He ended up selling only half the shares.

Altair 8800 Appears on the Cover of PE

Dec 18, 1974

The cover of the January 2025 issue of popular electronics magazine featured the Altair 8800. It was marketed as the worlds first minicomputer.

Microsoft releases Altair BASIC

Jul 1, 1975

Bill Gates and Paul Allen produced a basic interpreter for the Altair 8800 in 3 different memory sizes- 4k, 8k, and Extended.

Altair 8800a, 8800b, 680, and peripheral devices released

1976

MITS releases updates to the 8800, an Altair 680, and a plethora of peripheral devices because of the demand generated from the hobbyist and hacker communities.

Pertec announces plan to acquire MITS for $6 Million

Dec 3, 1976

Ed grew tired of managing MITS and reached out to Pertec to take over because of their close relationship as a major MITS supplier.

Ed leaves MITS

Dec 1, 1977

Ed didn't like where Pertec was taking the company and decided to leave and move to a farm in Wheeler County, GA

Ed Applies to Med School

1982

After farming for a few years, Ed applied to Mercer University and graduated with their first Class

Death

Apr 1, 2010

Died at 68 due to pneumonia