MITS Altair 8800 computer, serial no. 222719K, complete with the iconic Rev. 1 front panel (with "MITS Altair 8800 Computer" along the bottom) and sought-after Rev. 0 processor board with its original white ceramic and gold Intel 8080 CPU (marked "C8080A / N7285"). Among the other boards and upgrades are: the desirable MITS 2K PROM memory card (88-PMC), loaded with seven white ceramic 1702A EPROMS; the MITS 88-ACR/SIO board set (the desirable MITS cassette interface); PTCO 4KRA RAM board; video interface board; MITS 4-port parallel I/O interface board (88-4PIO); and upgraded power supply. Several of the original internal circuit card support brackets are cracked but present. The case's rear panel bears the affixed MITS, Inc. 'Creative Electronics' serial number label.
Included are over 400 pages of documentation—including an original "The Age of Altair" illustrated 22-page sales brochure, the Altair 8800 Assembly and Operator's Manual, multiple BASIC and CPM manuals in an Altair binder, assembly and applications manuals for the included circuit boards—as well as twenty Altair BASIC, CPM 85, and Zenith CPM and BASIC 8″ and 5.25″ floppy disks once used with the system.
Often credited with igniting the 'microcomputer revolution,' the Altair 8800 was the first commercially successful personal computer. Interest in it grew after it was featured on the cover of the 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, and it was sold by mail order as both a hobbyist kit and as a fully assembled unit. When Bill Gates and Paul Allen read about the Altair in Popular Electronics, they saw the opportunity to start their own computer software company and developed Altair BASIC—the very first product created by 'Micro-Soft.'
