1974: The Altair 8800 microcomputer goes on sale. It doesn't offer much, but it's the small start of a big trend toward small things. A small New Mexico company — with the big name of Micro ...

You can forget about the IBM Personal Computer and drop all the pretense about the 1984 Apple Macintosh. When it comes to which personal computer is the most influential of all time, there can only be ...

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. And it isn't even ...

I'm shamefully ignorant of early computers, although I can admire with an LED-appreciationists' eye the banks of flickering lights and glorious toggle switches. So it's the aesthete in me that loves ...

BANGALORE, INDIA: In the cover page of Popular Electronics, January 1975 issue, was a picture of box-like device in grey hues. The headline above the picture says, World's First Minicomputer Kit to ...

For those of us who are of a certain age or temperament, there’s a certain something about programming simple 8-bit computers in machine code using switches and pushbuttons. According to Wikipedia, ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. Not long after Intel introduced its ...

Like many my age, my first computer was a homebuilt. More than 30 years ago Radio Electronics magazine ran an article on building an Intel 8008 based computer. Still in high school, I saved my pennies ...

Ed Roberts, co-founder of Micro Information and Telemetry Systems (MITS) and designer of the Altair 8800, has died at the age of 68 The Altair 8800 kick-started the home computing revolution The ...

Exactly 50 years ago, on November 29, 1974, also a Friday, the January issue of the widely read US magazine "Popular Electronics" went to the printers. It was due to reach subscribers in mid-December ...

This is part of a series of posts about the circumstances leading up to the launch of the Altair 8800 in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. In my last few posts, I talked about the ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. This is a homemade keyboard for the ...