Tag along as Erik Klein lovingly restores a 1974 Altair 8800 to working order. Aficionado and collector Klein runs Vintage-Computer.com, a Web site dedicated to documenting and discussing historic hardware and programming.
These machines, which were among the earliest computers made widely available, were packaged in do-it-yourself kits available through mail order from the manufacturer, MITS of Albuquerque, N.M. You might remember MITS from its role in spurring a two-man gig later called "Micro-Soft." MITS bought a program from Bill Gates...on paper tape.
(CNET sister site TechRepublic runs a regular series called "Cracking Open" in which they take a look inside a variety of gadgets. News.com is publishing this excerpt, with permission from Vintage-computer.com.)
August 31, 2007 10:00 AM PDT
Photo by: Vintage-computer.com
