MITS Altair 8800 SN414 Microcomputer goes to new home

John Simkiss

It was a pleasure to have John Simkiss visit our  Computer Museum & Warehouse to pick up the Altair 8800 to take home for his collection. We spent the day having great conversations about the history of microcomputer and the people that made it happen. It was fun and a lot of reminiscing about old times while touring the museum warehouse with thousands of items from my 40+ years of collection microcomputer memorabilia.

Introducing John to our tiny village of Floyd,Virginia (419 folks here) and a tour of our Chantilly Festival Farm project along with some good meals made for a great day.

John describes his visit to the  Computer Museum in his own words
    A video of the MITS Altair 8800 transfer from the museum to John Simkiss. - "CLICK"

Click photo to enlarge

LR John Simkiss - David Larsen

This is a happy John Simkiss with his new addition of the Altair 8800 to his collection and the  Computer Museum curator on the right David Larsen.

This Altair 8800 was restored by Win Heagy to make it fully functional.

I will miss this computer however it will be replaced by one from our museum warehouse. I also have a lower serial number Altair 8800 - Number 0021 here is video  "CLICK".

John Simkiss with Titus 8080 Octal Code Card

John went  home with several additional historical microcomputer items including this "John Titus's 8080 Octal code card shown in the photo.

Several other first of a kind from our museum collection for John - One of the first Intel 8 bit microprocessor chips the 8008 and a never out of the box - one of the very first Intel EPROM chips the 1702A.

John added some nice items to our museum collection as well as taking some home - he donated  HP 41C, HP41CX, HP 19B2 calculators with manuals. Really nice addition. I think that 19B Business Consultant 2 will be used in our business in addition the museum collection.

John pointing our the MARK-8 computer

John pointing out one of our MARK-8 computers on display in the museum.

Here is a full audio description of this display case including the MARK-8 -- "CLICK"

Apple computer display

Looking over part of our Apple microcomputer displays. We also made a visit to the local bank vault where our museum's original Apple-1 computers are stored for a good look. More about our original Apple-1 computers look here "CLICK"







Here is a video of this Altair in operation tested by Win Heagy  "CLICK"

Altair original CPU board version  0

A peak inside John's Altair at an original MITS CPU board revision 0 with serial number in the 400's on the board.

C8080A Intel Microprocessor

Original C8080A microprocessor chip in the Altair.

1K MITS Altair RAM memory

Original 1K MITS Altair RAM memory board revision 0 and serial number 451 with computer sn 414.
Video of memory board.

First version of the Atair 8800 manual -Video.

David G Larsen

This was just a fun day with John reminiscing about microcomputer history in our little town of Floyd, Virginia.

 "by David Larsen"  Chantilly Farm owner, Computer Historian, and amateur radio operator -KK4WW   & N4USA .  I work out of one of the Tiny Homes at Chantilly Farm. A great place to work if you like the to be out in nature. I am 81 and ready to sell Chantilly Farm - I have a few more  projects I would like to do - if you have an interest to know more give me a call. 540 392 2392

      
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Altair 8800 Computer for sale

The computer has been sold - thank you to all that inquired about this Altair. 

info click

MITS ALTAIR 8800 computer for  Sale. This computer has been restored to working order by Win Heagy. Win has been a vintage computer collector for years and has restored many old computers including an original Digital Equipment PDP-8 minicomputer (PDP-8 work is still in progress). The ALTAIR 8800 is in nice condition and displays very nicely. I have posted many photo's below to show various aspects of the computer and the documentation that comes with the 8800. It is nice to have this computer operational and ready for a new home after resting in our museum warehouse for more then 25 years.

The computer serial number is 220414K and I believe the numbering started at 220000 --- that would make this number 414 in order of production. The K at the end of the serial number indicates that the computer was sold as a kit and it was up to the purchaser to assemble and test the product. The low serial number would put the computer in the first month or two of production by Ed Roberts "MITS" company --- a nice early ALTAIR 8800 computer.

Video of computer in various modes of operation "CLICK".

Contact me here for purchase or more information.

An ALTAIR 8800 sold today on Ebay for $9001 and a few weeks ago one sold for about $10,000. If mine does not sell soon I will remove it for sale and put it on Ebay. 4-12-15 - Checking the Ebay sale -- it did not make the reserve price so hi bid was $9001 but no sale.

Click on photo's to enlarge

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

This card  has a serial # on the card of 0456K.

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

This card has a serial number of 0457K.

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Altair 8800

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Altair 8800

Altair 8800

Win Heagy and his PDP-8 computer 

Here is Win Heagy picking up his PDP-8 at our computer warehouse.


More info about Win's PDP-8 "CLICK"





Here are some comments about the ALTAIR 8800 computer by Win Heagy.

1. Runs warm with the cover on.  If you plan to use it for extended
periods of time, consider installing a fan.
2. Some small dings and marks on the exterior, as is to be expected in
a 35+ year old machine.
3. In order to modify the original hardware as little as possible, an
extension cable was made for the original 2SIO serial cable.  A large
piece of white heat shrink tubing covers the DB25 connectors of this
extension cable and the original cable.  This extension can be removed
or reworked as desired.
4. The 4K RAM card was used for loading 4K BASIC in the video.
5. The MITS 1K Static RAM card was not extensively tested.  The RAM
test routine I have did not seem to work properly on this card.
However, as is seen in the video, I toggled in the “Kill the Bit”
program from the front panel using this card as the RAM card and it
works.  The RAM chips are soldered on this board.
6. Most of the documentation included with the system is not original.
Most of the manuals and other documentation is available online.
7. The 2SIO card is picky.  Be sure to use a good quality USB->Serial
adapter - or a real serial port on a PC.  The 2SIO expects serial
level voltages and some adapters cheat a little.  I had four different
adapters and only one worked.
8. A second serial cable/connector is included for the second port on
the 2SIO card.  This cable and port was not tested.

David Larsen

I am selling this and other duplicate computers from the collection to help pay the rent in the commercial rented space used by our museum. We try to have the museum open regular hours and have paid help as assistant curators in the museum. We live in a very rural area of the Blue Ridge mountains and not many retro computer folks to volunteer in the museum. Our little town of Floyd, Virginia only has a population of about 400. The county population is small and we are in a beautiful place with 42 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway as our Eastern boundary. The county is agriculture based and is known for it wonderful mountain music and many very creative artisans. 

           .^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian} 

Vintage Computer -MITS Altair 8800 restored by Josh Bensadon

Popular Electronics,January 1975

Bugbooks

Another ALTAIR 8800 is working once again.  This system was bought from David Larsen in August of 2013.  When I first saw it, immediately, my curiosity and imagination began to ponder what kind of service did this machine provide.  Some of the labels were worn out, so that speaks of a lot of switch use.  However, the switches themselves did not look worse for wear, so I'm guessing this system was used by one person that was careful to not damage switches over time.  Normally, the display LED's and Switches are grouped in sets of 3 to facilitate the octal numbering system.  This numbering system fits well with the 8080 instruction set and was used in many of the mini computers that came before the ALTAIR.  Interestingly enough, this system had the Switches and LED's grouped in sets of 4 for the hexadecimal system.  This might have been done because the CPU card that came with it was a Z80 CPU, but I am just guessing here.

Of course, the system was not operational when it got on my bench.  This is a good thing, since it meant I would have to open it up and learn more about it.  Before I go any further, the one thing I found to be very odd about the ALTAIR is the direction of the Power Switch.  Down is ON?  That was a very European thing, but I don't know a whole lot about Ed Roberts history.The problems were found quickly and without getting into trouble shooting, I'll just say the Bridge Rectifier had a bad connection and the 7430 chip that put the CPU into wait state was not working.  About 12 months earlier, I fixed up an IMSAI 8080 system which

IMSAI 8080

was told to be a copy of the ALTAIR BUS, but what I didn't realize was how much of a copy it really was.  While studying the schematics to trouble shoot, I could see the IMSAI front panel design as practically a chip for chip copy.  The ALTAIR 8800 was brought out to market as a construction article in Popular Electronics, Jan 1975.  This article was driven as a response to the competition's magazine (Radio Electronics) article to build the MARK-8, which came out 6 months earlier in July 1974.  But what made this computer more significant was how others like the IMSAI 8080 copied it.  They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  By copying it, they claimed the bus structure was a standard that everyone could build to, and people did.  I recall reading PE and RE magazines and everyone was either operating an S-100 bus or they provided a module to interface to it.  Well, I must bring this blurb to a close, but before I do, I would like to say as a Popular and Radio Electronics collector and enthusiast, this now working ALTAIR 8800 is the center piece of my collection.  Thank you David.

Regards,
Josh Bensadon

Josh Bensadon his MITS 8800,680  & IMSAI 8080 

David G Larsen

 I am delighted to see Josh has this MITS Altair microcomputer operational again. It had been in the Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum warehouse for at least 25 years.

^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
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Vintage Computer the MITS Altair 8800 at Frostfest - ( Hamfest ) in Richmond VA

Click here to see video of #21 Altair

Bugbooks

Ham Radio folks Feb 2015 
We will have a larger display of vintage computers including  Apple 1 computer clone, Altair 8800 & 680 + others and  some vintage ones for sale at Frostfest February 7th 2015 in Richmond VA

I went to the 2014 Hamfest ( Frostfest ) in Richmond VA to sell some of my ham radio equipment an a vintage MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer.  The Altair 8800 along with a few books from our old "Blacksburg and Bugbook" series created a crowd of folks at our booth.

My wife and I met many very interesting people who had used our books years ago or had their own Altair 8800. Some were just excited to see a real Altair 8800.  Many folks hear about the computer but never  had the opportunity to see one. We took the cover off and a many of photos were made of the computer.


                                Hear Davids comments about the fun time at Frostfest.

Here is a fun video of young person full of energy ready to restart Digital Equipment Corporation.








Here are a list of just a few of the vintage computer folks we met. Photos are lower in the blog .

- A person that had taken my class "Electronics for Scientist" at Virginia Tech in 1990.
- Fellow that visited me at VT in 1975 about using our books and teaching methods at his
  University.
- 3 gentlemen that had their own Altair 8800's all original owners.
- At least 5 folks that had used our books 30 years ago and still had the copies.
- 2 that started their own classes using our books back in the late 70's.
- Several that purchased books from the our old series we had with us - They all wanted a
   personal autograph in the book and I was pleased to sign the books.
- 2 That used the books and promised to write a story for this blog. I am looking forward to the
   story.
- A young lady that remembered using the MMD1 computer  trainer that came out of our
 "Blacksburg Group" in the late 70's and was designed by Jon Titus.
-A current Techie fellow doing Angle investing in tech start ups inviting me to come and give a
  lecture.
- A young retro computer fellow who plans to start up "Digital Equipment Corporation" again.
  - Golly the list keep going - you get the idea just a lot of folks interested in the Vintage
  Computer things and many had some association with our old work.

Here are photos of some of our visitors interested in Vintage Computers. 
Click on photos to enlarge 

Altair 8800 Microcomputer owners 

These 3 fellows all have Altair 8800  computers and are original owners. Unusual to have 3 visitor that are 8800 owners. I don't know the order of the names but that is me with the white hat - Dave KK4WW
The others are George W4AVD,Will KJ4XZ and Dick Stanley.
Here is a fun short video of the 3 and our chat about the MITTS Altair 8800 "CLICK"

Tweet and Bob KE4GDC 

Bob Stratton and friend on the left "Tweet" - Tweet used some of the minicomputer trainers designed by Jon Titus in our Blacksburg Group many years ago. Bob KE4GDC and I had some real interesting chats about vintage computers and funding tech start up companies. Bob may invite me to give a Microcomputer History talk to a group of his associates.  That would be fun.

Curtis Anderson N4ON 

Curtis Anderson N4ON. Curtis and I had great talks about our early teaching days of teaching digital electronics and our involvement in the Bugbooks. Curtis is really into history things - old railroads, Telephones and lots more take a look  http://www.wcast.info/pmt/
I am looking forward to Curtis writing some history things for my blog.
See comments below from Curtis.




Here are some comments by Curtis when he visited our museum 2-16-14

LR - Gaynell KK4WWW , Ray KA3EKH

Ray Fantini KA3EKH - Ray was more interested in vintage minicomputers and was surprised I had just sold two original PDP8 Minis.  I have a PDP11/10 he may be interest in having.  That is the last minicomputer in our "Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum". I am just having microcomputers in the museum now.

( October 2014 - I decided not to sell the PDP11/10 and have it on display in our museum .)

Gaynell KK4WWW at Frostfest 

Here is my wife Gaynell KK4WWW helping at the flea market table. We have a lot of fun working and traveling together. Look for Gaynell operating DX from Dominica as J79WWW. We will be there the last two weeks of this month - Feb 2014.
Gaynell is very good DX operator take a look at her J79 operating
 as J79WWW "CLICK video '

David G Larsen

Great fun at Frostfest and lots of new ham and vintage computer friends.


^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
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