The Age of Altair was MITS’s catalog. The author describes the Amazon Christmas toy catalog that arrives by mail as the modern-day version of the last century’s Sears Christmas Wish Book, but says that for real “hackers,” the wish book that has been kept for more than 50 years is MITS’s 1975 “The Age of Altair” catalog. The copy had already been scanned. He decided to scan the worn catalog, but when he realized that Bitsavers had already scanned a better copy, he took the images from there.
This is exactly where the Altair’s significance lies. In 1974, the idea of a personal computer was almost laughable, because although Radio Electronics had published the Mark 8 plans in July 1974, the machine used the weak 8008 processor and its parts were hard to find. The Kenbak-1 was also limited. Although limited computers like the Kenbak-1 reached some people, buying a real computer for money was something reserved only for the very wealthy.
This is how the Altair 8800 was announced. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics actually came out in December 1974 and introduced the Altair 8800, which could be bought as a kit or fully assembled. On its own, the machine consisted of nothing but switches, LEDs, and a processor; memory was expensive, and the memory and terminal needed to run BASIC were even more costly. Memory was expensive in those days. The magazines of the era had “bingo cards.” The reader would mark the number of the ad they were interested in and mail it to the magazine, and some time later would receive information from the company. That is how the author came across the “The Age of Altair” catalog. It is said that the machine on the cover looks different from the one in the magazine, and that the original was lost in return shipping after the photo shoot.
The Altair could be expanded later. Although the catalog listed a cycle time of two microseconds (approximately 500 kHz), the processor actually ran at 2 MHz; even a simple NOP took two microseconds. The way to do this was through the card cage later called the S-100 bus. Those with money chose expensive, low-capacity but fast static memory (flip-flops), while others could opt for the cheaper, higher-capacity dynamic memory (tiny capacitors).
Why it matters
The significance of this catalog comes not from being a product list, but from documenting the moment the personal computer was born. In 1974, when owning a real computer was reserved only for the very wealthy, the fact that the Altair 8800 could be purchased as a kit or fully assembled became the breaking point that opened this threshold to ordinary enthusiasts. It is also meaningful that the catalog has been scanned into the Bitsavers archive; since the original of the machine on its cover was lost in shipping, such scans are among the primary sources preserving the visual memory of the era. The council notes, however, raise two warnings: the Hackaday article cuts off abruptly in the memory options section, and the lost prototype story contradicts verifiable historical narrative. The reader is therefore faced with a source of high nostalgic value but questionable integrity.