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Ed Roberts, Personal Computer Pioneer, 1941-2010

Posted by timothy on from the set-things-in-motion dept.

jcr writes "CNET and the Huffington Post both report the death of Henry Edward Roberts, best known to all of us as the inventor of the Altair computer, at the age of 68 from pneumonia. As it happens, I never got to use an Altair, but I did meet Ed once, back in the mid-1980s. Since that time, I've never referred to the Altair bus as the 'S100' bus, since I agree with him that an inventor is entitled to name his invention." Updated 7:40 GMT by timothy: Roberts was 68, not 88 as originally stated; thanks to the readers who pointed out the typo.

9 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. He started something big by NixieBunny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Altair really got the hobby computer market going. It was by no means perfect, but it was something that a lot of people were hungry for. I had the thrill of working in a retail computer store in 1978 when the IMSAI and Apple were going head-to-head. [IMSAI is a spelling error in this text entry box, which tells you who won.]

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
    1. Re:He started something big by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Didnt David Lightman from War Games have IMSAI equipment?

      --
      Good-bye
    2. Re:He started something big by beejhuff · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hah, that's the first thing I thought of also! You're correct, he did indeed. And, if you're interested, you may be able to purchase the one used in the movie: http://www.imsai.net/Movies/WarGames.htm

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      Bryan "BJ" Hoffpauir
  2. Re:88? Not that lucky. by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Roberts died of pneumonia aged 68 in Georgia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roberts_(computers). Link referenced in the summary for dog's sake...

    --
    I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
  3. Re:Didn't have one of those, but by jcr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm still quite amused by the current crop of "hackers" who think they're all that but never built their own computer from chips and raw PC boards.

    Think that's bad? I knew someone who was a manager of a software test group at HP who didn't even understand basic household wiring. He had a hell of a time grasping how a simple three-way switch works.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  4. Re:it's all in the 8's by jcr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >if only the altair had been 6502 based.

    It's a chicken-and-egg problem. Intel's success with the 8008 and the 8080 were a major factor in convincing MOS technology to hire Chuck Peddle and the rest of his Motorola team to develop the 6502.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Re:Didn't have one of those, but by NixieBunny · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You think you had it hard waiting for paper tape? My brother wrote his own 2K Tiny Basic interpreter for the M6800 from scratch, stored on reel-to-reel tape. We wanted a printer; Dad brought home a Friden Flexowriter and invited us to make it talk. We did. We were lazy enough to ask for a 4K RAM kit with a genuine PC board for Christmas, since wire-wrapping 32 chips was a bit tedious.

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
  6. Re:Didn't have one of those, but by DamonHD · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Dead right.

    I have designed and built my own random-logic boards and 25 years ago before university I designed and wire-wrapped a robotics system and OS that was seen on TV and got lots of investment, etc, etc, but I'm still pleased as punch these days to be able to get a SheevaPlug running an entire Linux with full IP stack, etc, in a smaller volume and with lower power consumption which itself can host Java with its extensive API libraries...

    Which lets me focus on the bits I'm interested in.

    Rgds

    Damon

    --
    http://m.earth.org.uk/
  7. Re:it's all in the 8's by Gim+Tom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Having learned Assembly on a Dec PDP8 back in the mid 1960's I was struck by how similar the Altair 8800 looked to that machine. The Dec had fancier switches and we had a paper tape reader and a model 33 TTY for output. However, you STILL had to key in the FIRST (of two I think) boot loaders by hand in Octal on the front panel. Octal has NOT gone away, however. ALL IPV4 addresses are really OCTAL numbers. If you can think in Octal and know how an XOR gate works then Net Masks make perfect sense.