With the future of the Personal Computer in the hands of the hobbyists, the introduction of circuits board kit by Radio Electronics had brought response from thousands for the instruction book, and many built the Mark 8 computer from these, and computer clubs sprang up in California and Colorado. In 1975, Popular Electronics published two articles on a more sophisticated PC, the Altair 8800. It was the first total PC, and it launched the PC industry. It was based on Intel's 8080 microprocessor and designed by Micro Instrumentation and Telemeter Systems (MITS) of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fully assembled, it cost $650; in a kit with necessary parts and instructions, it was priced for $395. Thousands of orders poured in following publication.

MITS was founded in 1969 by Edward Roberts, an electronic engineer, 28, a research engineer in the laser division of the Air Force Weapons Lab at Albuquerque's Kirkland Air Force Base. Roberts, born in Miami, Florida, joined the Air Force at Lockland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. With financial aid from the Air Force, he attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, and received a BS in electrical engineering.

The first two years of MITS existence, Roberts and two partners from the Lab, and one civilian partner, the company was on a shoe-string budget and part time operation. Its first project was a telemetering kit for a model rocket, which did poorly. Forest Mims, one of the co-founders, wrote an article for popular Electronics on the "Opticon", a device which could send and receive voice via infrared light. With little response from the readers, Mims and the other partners exited and Roberts bought them out for $100 each.

Roberts, now alone, tried electronic calculator kit, and this brought an enthusiastic response for its $169 model. The company filled 10 to 15 thousand orders between 1972 and 1974, but the semiconductor manufacturers market entry ended MITS's business.

Roberts then went with an unprecedented project, a computer kit. He approached Popular Electronics who encouraged him. The kit offered little more than a toy and would sell for $400. Roberts and his engineers started building the Altair, using Intel's 8080 microprocessor.

The Altair was designed by Roberts, William Yates, a former Air Force Officer with a degree in aeronautical engineering, and Jim Bybee, also an ex-Air Force officer and electronics engineer. Roberts started with a clever decision. The Altair would be easy to expand, with extra slots for additional circuit boards for future expansion and future sales. Roberts obtained a $65,000 loan from Fidelity National who owned MITS's debt papers. One Altair was built, sent by Railway Express to New York for Popular Electronic editors Arthur Salsberg and Leslie Solomon's evaluation. It arrived a year later. Roberts flew to New York, and explained the Altair to them. They decided to publish the kit with only a assembled outer shell of Altair which did arrive for publication, and the arrival of "the home computer" was proclaimed. Mims was swamped with orders. With a revised kit, Paul Allen and Bill Gates would enter the computer scene as BASIC programmers.