ABSTRACT
Personal computing was perhaps the most life-changing consumer phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century, and it continues to surprise in its ever-evolving applications and forms. If the idea that the personal computer was shaped by an interplay of cultural forces and commercial interests appears nebulous, it is helpful to compare the development of the personal computer with the development of radio in the opening decades of the twentieth century, whose history is well understood. The enabling technology for the personal computer, the microprocessor, was developed during the period 1969–1971 in the semiconductor firm Intel. In the 1970s, the hobbyists lighted on the computer as the next electronics bandwagon. In January 1975 the first microprocessor-based computer, the Altair 8800, was announced on the front cover of Popular Electronics. The Altair 8800 was produced by a tiny Albuquerque, New Mexico, electronics kit supplier, Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS).
