Editing Altair 8800 (section)

===Intel 8080===
Ed Roberts had designed and manufactured programmable calculators and was familiar with the microprocessors available in 1974. He thought the [[Intel 4004]] and [[Intel 8008]] were not powerful enough (in fact several microcomputers based on Intel chips were already on the market: the Canadian company [[Microsystems International]]'s CPS-1 built-in 1972 used a MIL MF7114 chip modeled on the 4004, the [[Micral]] marketed in January 1973 by the French company [[R2E]] and the [[MCM/70]] marketed in 1974 by the Canadian company Micro Computer Machines); the National Semiconductor IMP-8 and [[IMP-16]] required external hardware; the [[Motorola 6800]] was still in development. So he chose the 8-bit [[Intel 8080]].<ref name = "73 Magazine">{{cite magazine | last = Green | first = Wayne | title = Believe Me - I'm No Expert! |magazine=73 Magazine | issue = 184 | page =89 | publisher = 73, Inc | location = Peterborough, NH | date = February 1976}} Wayne Green visited MITS in August 1975 and interviewed Ed Roberts. The article has several paragraphs on the design of the Altair 8800.</ref> At that time, Intel's main business was selling memory chips by the thousands to computer companies. They had no experience in selling small quantities of microprocessors. When the 8080 was introduced in April 1974, Intel set the single unit price at {{US$|long=no|360}} (${{Inflation|US|360|1974|r=-1}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}). "That figure had a nice ring to it," recalled Intel's Dave House in 1984. "Besides, it was a computer, and they usually cost thousands of dollars, so we felt it was a reasonable price."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/General/15yrs.pdf|title=A Revolution in Progress - A History to Date of Intel|last=Intel Corporation|publisher=Intel Corporation|year=1984|editor=Glynnis Thompson Kaye|page=14|id=Order number:231295}}</ref> Ed Roberts had experience in buying [[Original equipment manufacturer|OEM]] quantities of calculator chips and he was able to negotiate a {{US$|long=no|75}} price (${{Inflation|US|75|1974|r=-1}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) for the 8080 microprocessor chips.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Freiberger | author-link = Paul Freiberger | first1 = Paul | first2 = Michael | last2 = Swaine | author-link2 = Michael Swaine (technical author) | title = Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer | publisher = McGraw-Hill | year = 2000 | location = New York, NY | page = [https://archive.org/details/fireinvalleymaki00frei_0/page/42 42] | isbn = 0-07-135892-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/fireinvalleymaki00frei_0/page/42 | url-access=registration}} "Roberts was sure he could get the chip price much cheaper, and he did. Intel knocked the price down to {{US$|long=no|75}}."</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Mims | first = Forrest |date=January 1985 | title = The Tenth Anniversary of the Altair 8800 | journal = Computers & Electronics | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages =58–62, 81–82 | publisher = Ziff Davis}}"But because the 8080 sold for {{US$|long=no|360}} in single quantities, few people could afford it. Ed Roberts bought the chips in large quantities and was able to get a substantial discount…"</ref> Seizing the opportunity to be ahead of computers of the time, MITS began development of the Altair 8800 in the summer of 1974, about 2 months after the release of the Intel 8080.<ref name="Altair DOC">{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpbh0AEI8dE|date=April 20, 2020|title=The Altair 8800: The Computer That Started A Revolution|author=SolidFish|work=[[YouTube]]|access-date=December 10, 2024}}</ref>

Intel made the [[Intellec-8]] Microprocessor Development System that typically sold for a very profitable {{US$|long=no|10000}}. It was functionally similar to the Altair 8800 but it was a commercial grade system with a wide selection of peripherals and development software.<ref name = "Intellec-8">{{cite book | last = Ceruzzi | first = Paul E. | title = A History of Modern Computing | publisher = MIT Press | year = 2003 | location = Cambridge, MA | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernc00ceru_0/page/222 222–224] | isbn = 0-262-53203-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernc00ceru_0/page/222 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name = "New Products Oct 1976">{{cite journal | last = Michalopoulos | first = Demetrios A. | title = New Products | journal = Computer | volume = 9 | issue = 10 | pages =59–64 | publisher = IEEE | date = October 1976 | doi = 10.1109/C-M.1976.218414}} "Intel Corporation has announced that an interactive display console and highspeed line printer are now available for the Intellec MDS microcomputer development system. … The display console costs {{US$|long=no|2240}} and the printer {{US$|long=no|3200}} in quantities of 1 to 9. Delivery is in 30 days. Price of the basic Intellec MDS with 16K bytes of RAM memory, including interfaces and resident software for operating the peripherals, is {{US$|long=no|3950}}."</ref> Customers would ask Intel why their Intellec-8 was so expensive when that Altair was only {{US$|long=no|400}}. Some Intel salesmen told their customers that MITS was getting cosmetic rejects or otherwise inferior chips. In July 1975, Intel sent a letter to its sales force stating that the MITS Altair 8800 computer used standard Intel 8080 parts. The sales force should sell the Intellec system based on its merits and that no one should make derogatory comments about valued customers like MITS. The letter was reprinted in the August 1975 issue of MITS Computer Notes.<ref name="Computer Notes - Intel">{{cite journal|title=Across the Editor's Desk |journal=Computer Notes |last=Bunnell |first=David |volume=1 |issue=3 |page=2 |publisher=Altair Users Group, MITS Inc. |date=August 1975 |url=http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/notesViewer.php?ii=75_8&p=2 |access-date=2007-12-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323162008/http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/notesViewer.php?ii=75_8&p=2 |archive-date=March 23, 2012 }} Intel letter to its sales force. "We wish to clarify any misconception that may exist in your minds regarding the MITS ALTAIR system. This product is designed around the Intel Standard Data Sheet 8080 family."</ref> The "cosmetic defect" rumor has appeared in many accounts over the years although both MITS and Intel issued written denials in 1975.<ref name = "Stan Veit">{{cite book | last = Veit | first = Stan | title = Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer | publisher = WorldComm Press | year = 1993 | location = Alexander, North Carolina | page = 283 | isbn = 1-56664-030-X }} "Ed Roberts was able to get around this problem by obtaining a supply of cosmetic reject chips for about 1/3 the retail price."</ref>