Editing Altair 8800 (section)

==Software==

===Altair BASIC===
{{Main|Altair BASIC}}

[[Ed Roberts (computer engineer)|Ed Roberts]] received a letter from [[Traf-O-Data]] asking whether he would be interested in buying what would eventually be the [[BASIC]] [[programming language]] for the machine. He called the company and reached a private home, where no one had heard of anything like BASIC. In fact the letter had been sent by [[Bill Gates]] and [[Paul Allen]] from the [[Boston]] area, and they had no BASIC yet to offer. When they called Roberts to follow up on the letter he expressed his interest, and the two started work on their BASIC [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] using a self-made [[Simulator#Computer science|simulator]] for the 8080 on a [[PDP-10]] [[mainframe computer]]. They figured that they had 30 days before someone else beat them to the punch, and once they had a version working on the simulator, Allen flew to Albuquerque to deliver the program, [[Altair BASIC]] (aka MITS 4K BASIC), on a [[paper tape]]. The first time it was run, it displayed "READY",<ref name="NM Interview">{{cite web |last=Gates |first=Bill |title=NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY Bill Gates interview |url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc12}}</ref> then Allen typed "PRINT 2+2", and it immediately printed the correct answer: "4". The game ''[[Lunar Lander (video game genre)|Lunar Lander]]'' was entered in, and this worked as well. Gates soon joined Allen and formed [[Microsoft]], then spelled "Micro-Soft".

=== Altair DOS ===
Announced in late 1975, it started shipping in August 1977.