Altair Owners ...

From: ajp166 <ajp166_at_bellatlantic.net>
Date: Fri Jan 5 18:13:07 2001

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>


>So ... you're of the opinion that Altair computers shouldn't have a
disk?
>MITS built them with a disk, didin't they? I can't imagine how the


Yes they did! The floppy was two boards as a controller.

>My recollection was that the original Altair had no I/O devices at all.
To


Incorrect. Mine arrive in january 1975 with MITS 88-PIO and MITS 88-ACR
(audio casette via modded modem board and SIO card pair!) and by summer
I had the 2SIO board. Still ahve and use the SIOs and one of the
programmers
is based on the PIO.

>me that didn't suggest it was complete without them, but it did suggest
it

>was a work in progress when it appeared on the mag cover in '75 or
whenever.
>It's going to take a couple of days for me to get my head around the
concept
>you seem to project.

Almost true. that cover was shot in September to make the Pop'Tronics
schedule, by December it was reality.

>I have always thought it was a mistake to refer a computer with
>non-MITS-original hardware as an Altair. I kind-of see folks calling it
a
>FORD if it says FORD on it, even if the engine is from a Chrysler and
the
>transmission is from a DeSoto.


It's a ford of the body and chassis is ford. Most Altairs were MITS box,
CPU and some amount or ram and IO but rarely pure.

Allison
Received on Fri Jan 05 2001 - 18:13:07 GMT