Altair 8800 is also responsible for most of what we associate with microcomputers beyond the basic hardware itself. For example, the Altair User's Group was formed by MITS in 1975. That same year an Altair newsletter began publication. In March 1976, the MITS 1st World Altair Computer Convention (WACC) was held. The WACC holds the honor of being the first major microcomputer convention. The first retail computer outlets were set-up to sell Altairs. The open architecture enabled the rise of the add-on board industry. And finally, the high level computer language chosen by Ed Roberts to be used with the machine was none other than the version of BASIC developed by Paul Allen and Bill Gates from a new company called Microsoft. The next major development in the evolution of the microcomputer was the beginning of Apple Computer. In 1976, Steve Wozniak, a technician at Hewlett- Packard, attended Wescon (an electronics trade show) and purchased a few of the MOS Technology 6502 chips that were selling for $20.00 a piece. With this he wrote a BASIC language interpreter and then followed-up in the spring of 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club with the Apple I.The Apple I really wasn't a whole lot to write home about. It had no keyboard, no power supply and no case. It did however; impress Steve Jobs who was willing to form a company with Wozniak to sell the machines. It also impressed Paul Terrell who had in the previous year opened the first Byte Shop, a computer- related retail outlet, in Mountain View; CA. Terrell placed an order for 50 of the machines. Within the first few months of the venture, Wozniak and Jobs had managed to sell about 200 of the machines to retailers in the Bay Area at a price of $666.00 a piece.What really got the company off the ground was not the quality of the merchandise however, fine as it may have been, but the interest of A. C. 'Mike' Markkula. Markkula was an engineer who had also gotten a significant amount of bu...
