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Lockergnome: What was the original primary function of the Intel 8080 microprocessor?

Posted by Marc Erickson

04.21.2004 @ 07:29 PM PT

“There are several viable candidates for the title of “world’s first personal computer,” and—as usual—it all comes down to how you define the term….Perhaps a better title to award is the world’s first commercially successful personal computer. The winner is almost certainly the MITS Altair 8800, which first appeared in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.

Based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor (the successor to the Intel 8008), the Altair sold as a kit for roughly $400, and it ran a licensed version of Bill Gates’ and Paul Allen’s BASIC programming language. The key to profitability, however, was a discount on the PC’s Intel 8080s, which MITS managed to obtain by purchasing bulk quantities of cosmetically flawed but fully functional processors.”