Many think the Apple II and Radio Shack's TRS-80 represent thebeginning of the personal computer era. Indeed, Byte Magazinelabeled these two microcomputers, along with Commodore's PET, allof which debuted in the same year, as the "1977 Trinity." So it'snot unusual for the casual observer to cite those units as "thefirst."
But that's wrong. Those in the field generally recognize theAltair 8800 as the first actual personal computer. Coming out in1974, its use of an Intel microprocessor, the S-100 computer bus,and Microsoft's founding product (Altair BASIC) became the templateupon which a future industry thrived.
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