"Personal computer era's humble beginnings"

The key role played 40 years ago by the San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS' very own "Country Scientist," Mr. Forrest Mims III!!

"Tiny company that first sold tracking lights to rocket hobbyists led to creation of Microsoft."

Adapted from the San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS, Monday, August 4, 2008.

"Forty years ago this summer; Lt. Ed Roberts was assigned to the Laser Division of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., where I also was assigned.

"Roberts had just graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in electrical engineering.

"Before Roberts went to college, he was assigned to Lackland AFB, where he started a small electronics company in his off - duty hours.

"One of his contracts was to assist with the animated Christmas displays at the Joske's building across from the Alamo.

"Roberts had big goals when we first met.

"He planned to be a millionaire, own a farm in Georgia and become both a pilot and a medical doctor by the age of 30.

"Meanwhile, Roberts had a more immediate goal."


He desperately wanted to build a computer...


"He desperately wanted to build a computer.

"We had both built simple computers in high school, and we spent hours discussing how to build a more advanced computer using newly integrated circuits.

"We also dreamed about starting a company to sell electronic gadgets to hobbyists.

"In 1969 a magazine published an article I wrote about how to build a tiny light flasher for tracking and finding small rockets that I launched at night for a research project.

"That article launched the company Roberts and I had talked about forming.

"After Roberts saw the article, we partnered with Stan Cagle and Bob Zaller to start Micro Instrumentations and Telemetry Systems [MITS]to make and sell light flashers and radio transmitters to rocket hobbyists.

"The company was not making much money, so Cagle, Zaller and I eventually left to earn a living."

...a computer based on a new Intel chip...


"MITS was nearly bankrupt when Roberts bet his company on one final product: a computer based on a a new Intel chip.

"The Altair 8800 began the personal computer era when it appeared on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics.

"MITS was flooded with orders, and Roberts quickly called to ask me to write the manual.

"Computer programmer and college dropout Paul Allen saw the issue of Popular Electronics at a store in Harvard Square and rushed over to Harvard to show his high school friend, Bill Gates.

"Within six weeks, Allen and Gates had developed the first software for the Altair.

"Soon Allen was hired by Roberts, and Gates followed him later to establish a partnership that they initially named Micro - Soft.

"Ed Roberts sold MITS in 1977 and left for Georgia as a pilot and a millionaire.

"He also bought a 900 - acre farm and became a medical doctor.

"In 1979 Bill Gates and Paul Allen moved their fledgling Microsoft to the Seattle area, and you know the rest of the story."

The blurb below all this reads:

Forrest M. Mims III and his science are featured at www.forrest-mims.org. E - mail him at forest.mims@ieee.org. The Country Scientist appears Mondays.