Ed Roberts (entrepreneur)
Henry Edward "Ed" Roberts (born September 13, 1941 in Miami , Florida , † April 1, 2010 in Macon , Georgia ) was the founder and president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), one of the mid-1970s launched the first personal computer for home use, the Altair 8800 .
Career
Roberts trained as an electrical engineer as a member of the United States Air Force at Oklahoma State University . In 1968 Roberts was transferred to the research laboratories at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico , where he met his future partner Forrest Mims III . Together with his college friend Stan Cagle and the officer Bob Zaller, the four founded the MITS company, which initially built telemetry systems for hobby electronics. In the fall of 1970, the partners of MITS parted ways over the question of the direction in which the further development of the company should go. Roberts wanted to start making desktop computers , while Cagle and Mims wanted to build an infrared alarm system. Roberts bought the shares in the company from Cagle and Mims and prevailed with his ideas.
Altair 8800
After Roberts launched his first desktop calculators , he wrote about his MITS-816 desktop calculator kit in the November 1971 issue of Popular Electronics , and the calculator business started very well immediately after it was released to run. From 1974, however, Roberts was forced to bring a new product onto the market because the prices for desktop computers had fallen sharply and his kit could no longer keep up with the already assembled desktop computers of the competition. He therefore developed the first kit for a personal computer, the Altair 8800, about which Roberts also published an article in Popular Electronics magazine, now in the January 1975 issue. This article was read by then Harvard student Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen . The two contacted Roberts and suggested that he write a BASIC interpreter for the Altair. Roberts accepted the proposal and hired the two, which is why Gates left Harvard. After Gates and Allen had worked for MITS for some time, they left the company and founded Microsoft . The article also inspired a group of Altair 8800 fans who started the Homebrew Computer Club . Members of this club founded a total of 23 computer companies, including a. also the Apple company .
In 1977 MITS was bought by Pertec Computer Corporation and production of the Altair was discontinued.
Time after MITS
Roberts bought a ranch in Georgia with his stake in MITS sales , trained in medicine, and worked as a general practitioner in the country.
In 2010, he died of pneumonia at the age of 68.
Movies
- The Silicon Valley story with Noah Wyle and Anthony Michael Hall : Film about the careers of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, in which the character of Ed Roberts also appears. The film is based on the book Fire in the Valley - The Making of the Personal Computer .
literature
- Paul Freiberger, Michael Swaine: Fire in the Valley - The Making of the Personal Computer ; ISBN 0-07-135892-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Bill Gates: "Remembering Ed Roberts" ( Memento April 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed April 3, 2010)
- ↑ cf. Walker, Dionne ( AP ): PC maker, inspiration for Microsoft dies in Ga. At google.com, April 2, 2010 (accessed April 2, 2010)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Roberts, Ed |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Roberts, Henry Edward (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American IT entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 13, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Miami , Florida |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1, 2010 |
| Place of death | Georgia |