Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Altair 8800
     
         An {Intel 8080}-based machine made by {MITS}.  The
        Altair was the first popular {microcomputer} kit.
     
        It appeared on the cover of the January 1975 "Popular
        Electronics" magazine with an article (probably) by Leslie
        Solomon.  Leslie Solomon was an editor at Popular Electronics
        who had a knack for spotting kits that would interest people
        and make them buy the magazine.  The Altair 8800 was one such.
        The MITS guys took the prototype Altair to New York to show
        Solomon, but couldn't get it to work after the flight.
        Nonetheless, he liked it, and it appeared on the cover as "The
        first minicomputer in a kit."
     
        Solomon's blessing was important enough that some MITS
        competitors named their product the "SOL" to gain his favour.
        Some wags suggested {SOL} was actually an abbreviation for the
        condition in which kit purchasers would find themselves.
     
        {Bill Gates} and Paul Allen saw the article on the Altair 8800
        in Popular Electronics.  They realized that the Altair, which
        was programmed via its binary front panel needed a {high level
        language}.  Legend has it that they called MITS with the claim
        that they had a {BASIC} {interpreter} for the Altair.  When
        MITS asked them to demo it in Albuquerque, they wrote one on
        the plane.  On arrival, they entered the machine code via the
        front panel and demonstrated and sold their "product."  Thus
        was born "Altair BASIC."
     
        The original Altair BASIC ran in less than 4K of RAM because a
        "loaded" Altair had 4K memory.  Since there was no {operating
        system} on the Altair, Altair BASIC included what we now think
        of as {BIOS}.  It was distributed on {paper tape} that could
        be read on a {Teletype}.  Later versions supported the 8K
        Altair and the 16K {diskette}-based Altair (demonstrating
        that, even in the 1970s, {Microsoft} was committed to
        {software bloat}).  Altair BASIC was ported to the {Motorola
        6800} for the Altair 680 machine, and to other 8080-based
        microcomputers produced by MITS' competitors.
     
        {PC-History.org Altair 8800 page
        (http://pc-history.org/altair_8800.htm)}.
     
        [Forrest M. Mimms, article in "Computers and Electronics",
        (formerly "Popular Electronics"), Jan 1985(?)].
     
        [Was there ever an "Altair 9000" microcomputer?]
     
        (2002-06-17)