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 | |
| Industry | Computer hardware |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1969 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States |
| Founder | Ed Roberts, Forrest Mims |
| Fate | Acquired by Pertec Computer in 1977 |
| Headquarters | Albuquerque, New Mexico , United States |
| Products | Altair 8800 |
Number of employees | 230 (1976) |
Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) was an American electronics company founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico that began manufacturing electronic calculators in 1971 and personal computers in 1975.[1]
Ed Roberts and Forrest Mims founded MITS in December 1969 to produce miniaturized telemetry modules for model rockets such as a roll rate sensor.[2] In 1971, Roberts redirected the company into the electronic calculator market and the MITS 816 desktop calculator kit was featured on the November 1971 cover of Popular Electronics.[3] The calculators were very successful and sales topped one million dollars in 1973. A brutal calculator price war left the company deeply in debt by 1974.
Roberts then developed the first commercially successful microcomputer, the Altair 8800, which was featured on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics. Hobbyists flooded MITS with orders for the $397 computer kit. Paul Allen and Bill Gates saw the magazine and began writing software for the Altair, later called Altair BASIC.[4] They moved to Albuquerque to work for MITS and in July 1975 started Microsoft.
MITS's annual sales had reached $6 million by 1977 when they were acquired by Pertec Computer. The operations were soon merged into the larger company and the MITS brand disappeared. Roberts retired to Georgia where he studied medicine and became a small town medical doctor.[5]
- ^ Mims, Forrest M. (November 1984). "The Altair story: the early days at MITS". Creative Computing. Vol. 10, no. 11. p. 17. Archived from the original on 2007-04-08. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ Mandell, Gorden (April 1970). "From the launching pad". Model Rocketry. 2 (9). Cambridge, MA: Model Rocketry, Inc: 5.The editor describes the first MITS modules with photo of the units.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
MITS 816was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Bill Gates: A Timeline". BBC News. BBC. July 15, 2006. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
- ^ Emerson, Bo (April 27, 1997). "Doctor of Invention: Computer pioneer keeping it personal as a small-town doc". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. M.01.