Ed Roberts uses an Intel 8080 microprocessor to build a Personal Computer. In some ways, it’s the first PC. It has 256 bytes of memory and no keyboard: it uses switches. Les Solomon, of Popular Electronics magazine, is looking for something for his cover. Solomon is from Brooklyn and fought with Begin in Palestine in the Israeli army. Solomon and Roberts agree to publish the January 1975 issue. Roberts rushes to make time… but the shipping agent loses the only working prototype, and the version sent to the magazine ends up being a fake. It’s the Altair 8800. It’s called that because Solomon’s daughter, a Star Trek fan, suggests Roberts name it after the star the Enterprise visited in that evening’s episode: Altair. The day after its publication, the Altair 8800 sells 400 units. One, at Harvard, is bought by a boy named Paul Allen, who takes it to his friend Bill Gates.
