Ed Roberts (computer engineer)

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Ed Roberts (computer engineer) : biography

September 13, 1941 – April 1, 2010

Another editor, Alexander Burawa, recalls a less dramatic version. The Altair was originally going to be named the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this name to be rather dull, so Solomon, Burawa, and John McVeigh decided that: "It’s a stellar event, so let’s name it after a star." McVeigh suggested "Altair", the twelfth-brightest star in the sky.

When the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics reached readers in mid-December 1974, MITS was flooded with orders.Popular Electronics was published the month before the cover date. The January 1975 issue was published on November 29, 1974. Copyright registration record. They had to hire extra people just to answer the phones. In February, MITS received 1,000 orders for the Altair 8800. The quoted delivery time was 60 days but it was many more months before the machines were shipped. By August 1975, they had shipped over 5,000 computers. In August 1975, Wayne Green visited several personal computer manufacturers. A photo caption in his trip report says; "Meanwhile, at MITS, over 5,000 Altair 8800’s have been shipped. Here is a view of part of the production line."

The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS. They needed to sell additional memory boards, I/O boards and other options to make a profit. The April 1975 issue of the MITS newsletter, Computer Notes, had a page-long price list that offered over 15 optional boards. The delivery time given was 60 or 90 days, but many items were never produced and dropped from future price lists. Initially, Roberts decided to concentrate on production of the computers. Prompt delivery of optional boards did not occur until October 1975.

There were several design and component problems in the MITS 4K Dynamic RAM board. By July, new companies such as Processor Technology were selling 4K Static RAM boards with the promise of reliable operation. Ed Roberts acknowledged the 4K Dynamic RAM board problems in the October 1975 Computer Notes. The price was reduced from $264 to $195 and existing purchasers got a $50 refund. MITS released its own 4K Static RAM board in January 1976.

Several other companies started making add-in boards and the first clone, the IMSAI 8080, was available in December 1975. "Later that day, December 16 [1975], United Parcel Service picked up the first shipment of 50 IMSAI computer kits for delivery to customers."

Personal life

Ed Roberts married Joan Clark (b. 1941) in 1962 and they had five sons, Melvin (b. 1963), Clark (b. 1964), John David (b. 1965), Edward (b. 1970), Martin (b. 1975) and a daughter Dawn (b. 1983). They were divorced in 1988.Zannos (2003), 44.

Roberts married Donna Mauldin in 1991 and they were still married when interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April 1997. He was married to Rosa Cooper from 2000 until his death.

Roberts died April 1, 2010 after a months-long bout with pneumonia, he was 68. His sister, Cheryl R Roberts (b. November 13, 1947 – d. March 6, 2010), of nearby Dublin, Georgia died at age 62, a few weeks before his death.Social Security Death Index During his last hospitalization in Macon, Georgia, hospital staffers were stunned to see an unannounced Bill Gates, who had come to pay last respects to his first employer. He was survived by his wife, all six of his children and his mother, Edna Wilcher Roberts. All live in Georgia.

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

Roberts worked with Forrest Mims at the Weapons Laboratory, and both shared an interest in model rocketry. Mims was an advisor to the Albuquerque Model Rocket Club and met the publisher of Model Rocketry magazine at a rocketry conference. This led to an article in the September 1969 issue of Model Rocketry; "Transistorized Tracking Light for Night Launched Model Rockets". Roberts, Mims and two other lab coworkers, Stan Cagle and Bob Zaller, decided they could design and sell electronics kits to model rocket hobbyists. Roberts wanted to call the new company Reliance Engineering, but Mims wanted to form an acronym similar to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT. Cagle came up with Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, MITS.Mims (1986), 29. They advertised the light flasher, a roll rate sensor with transmitter and other kits in Model Rocketry, but the sales were disappointing.