The Official IMSAI Web Site

Two versions of our IMSAI Series Two SE "short" chassis. This configuration is 6 1/2" shorter in depth than the full-length IMSAI Series Two and original IMSAI 8080. It is otherwise identical in height and width dimensions.

Lower Left: Configured for S-100 bus with IDE hard drive
Lower Right: Configured for ATX motherboard with IDE hard drive

How many IMSAI 8080's were made?

According to a July 2002 e-mail from the IMSAI 8080 creator Joe Killian,

"I remember passing the 17,000 mark. I believe it never went past 20,000" [between December of 1975 and September 1979].

Fischer-Freitas Company produced another 2100+ machines between November 1979 and June 1986. These machines can be identified by the Fischer-Freitas Company back panel label.

Systems produced after June of 1980 were supplied with the one-piece front panel masked which consisted of a laminated Mylar mask assembly adhered to a clear acrylic backing panel.

I have long stated that IMSAI produced more computer systems than any other up until the closure of the founding company in 1979. My information was based on an early communication from our old friend Stan Veit. Before his death, Les Solomon (former Technical Editor for Popular Electronics magazine) informed me (through mutual friend Stan Veit) that he doubted over 12,000 Altairs were produced. Since no other production estimates seemed to exist, it was from this statement that I made my assumption.

Ed Roberts, founder of MITS (the firm that introduced the pioneering Altair 8800) offers an opposing claim, excerpted from an e-mail reply to IMSAI's former Chief Engineer Joe Killian after their first communication ever on June 28, 2004. An excerpt follows:

(Ed Roberts:) "By the time the first IMSAI's appeared the 8800B was in production and was a significant improvement over the earlier designs in a number of ways. For some reason the A and B seems to have gone unnoticed in the history of personal computers even though there were close to 30,000 of the B's manufactured. The Altair 680 and its variants also have disappear into history even though there were well over 10,000 of these models produced."

Until his first-ever contact with me on June 27, 2004, Ed Roberts has remained relatively silent over the years regarding much of his early history. I will continue to offer, as made available, additional insight and clarification of the early Altair/Roberts history that may have been omitted or mangled in other published histories of the beginnings of the microcomputer industry.

I had copied the Roberts e-mail and my reply to IMSAI creator Joe Killian, who then made the first-ever contact with former mega-competitor Ed Roberts. Joe copied me on his e-mail to Ed, and one of the more profound statements made by Joe speaks volumes of the burgeoning growth that followed the introduction of the Altair:

(Joe Killian:) "Your card size, bus connector and signal definitions were copied, by IMSAI, Processor Tech, and countless others, either for complete systems or add-in boards. This was the sincerest form of flattery, done because I and others saw supporting your design as the best business path to pursue. I do think that this support in the form of add-in cards and alternate platforms using the same bus was fortuitous for all of us, in that it snowballed into the fledgling industry's standard. I've always sort of felt that my choice of using your bus, and thus IMSAI quickly being out there as a second MITS compatible machine, tipped the balance on the part of all the others wanting to enter the microcomputer market.

"Without such a standard, I would guess that neither MITS nor the industry would have taken off nearly so quickly. Nothing else from your machine was copied in the design of the IMSAI (save the use of the 8080 chip, of course). By contrast, I had the dubious privilege along the way of examining a competing chassis that copied my IMSAI chassis right down to holes I put in for options that we never used."

A letter from Ed Roberts (6-27-2004) A major brouhaha recently erupted when a well-meaning friend e-mailed MITS founder Ed Roberts (of pioneering and epic Altair 8800 fame) text of a newsgroup post that claimed IMSAI was the first to use what later became known as the "S-100 bus", an interconnect method using a specific electrical interconnect and board outline for microcomputer use. Prior to the introduction of the IBM PC in 1983, the "S-100 bus" was the most popular and prolific microcomputer platform in the world, served by many hundreds of manufacturers and software providers. That founding honor has always been attributed to Ed Roberts and his pioneering Altair 8800, first announced in the January, 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine.

The Altair bus structure, an original design created by Ed Roberts and cohort Bill Yates for a personal computer designed around the Intel 8080 microprocessor, became the de-facto bus standard for a revolutionary modular method of building and enhancing system performance of then-new microcomputer systems.

It was later modified in small but improved ways by a group of after-market and competitive manufacturers in order to enhance and expand capabilities and performance. By the end of 1976, it was now generally recognized as the "S-100 bus", an appellation attributed to Cromemco co-founders Roger Melen and Harry Garland sometime in the latter part of 1976. In 1978 it became an officially recognized bus standard, now referred to as the IEEE-696 bus. Many of us who were involved in one manner or other in those first days of microcomputers still affectionately refer to the bus as the "Roberts bus". This reference was always used as a kind of humorous "secret society" buzz phrase, although "Altair/IMSAI bus" became the generally accepted notation in the first part of 1976.

A Strange Coincidence- I joined the Air Force in early 1964 to escape Columbus, Georgia, where my step-dad had been assigned some 9 months earlier. After graduating Basic Training I was assigned to Cryptographic Equipment Repair School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. I have recently discovered that Ed Roberts, co-founder of MITS aka Altair fame was an instructor there at that time. It is likely that Ed was one of my instructors during the 9 months I attended the 3-story windowless brick Crypto structure where classes were taught. Because of my previous experience and knowledge I was able to by-pass the first 6 weeks of training, with special acknowledgement of tutoring and prompting in vacuum tube electronics from an unknown instructor who felt I had the basics and drive to continue without failure. If that instructor was Ed, I extend my gratitude and good fortune. If not, I still extend my gratitude and good fortune. I was later assigned to Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Burns Flat, Oklahoma, the state where Ed Roberts was born and raised. Who might have surmised in that early period that our paths would intertwine and eventually cross some 40 years later?

The first e-mail- I was enjoying a pleasant early Sunday morning sitting on the patio, reading the paper, sipping coffee, and listening to the tomatoes grow when I heard the plaintiff call of my e-mail alert. There on the Subject line read the following:

The sender was Ed Roberts, founder of MITS, the company that produced the pioneering Altair 8800. Now, had the word "theft" been used instead, I would have been more objective in reading the content. But use of the term "thief" just hit me wrong. The text content was curt and sharply worded, accusing me of "rewriting history". He didn't include citation of such malfeasance, nor an explanation of where this rage was coming from. This was personal! I never had occasion to speak or otherwise communicate with him before, having assumed he was living a bucolic life on his farm and enjoying a well-earned rest and retirement.

I considered three possible approaches to my rejoinder; one profane, one patronizing, but settled on the moderately chosen "polite, but firm" choice. I found my reply to flow from the heart, chiding him for jumping on erroneous information, but leaving the door open for reconciliation. I also made clear that I would correct any misinformation, cite my original source of information, and credit the corrections to those providing it. The lengthy, but respectful reply was one of my better works.

He replied back soon thereafter, apologizing for possibly jumping the gun with insufficient information. It seems that someone misinterpreted an old post to a newsgroup by me that told of pre-Altair efforts by Joe Killian and Bill Millard to produce a microcomputer for business use. The e-mail sent to Ed included the following from a newsgroup post...

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"I went to your site and saw a technical error. You list the Altair as the first S-100 computer. It is not, the Altair originally had no bus. When they started shipping they adopted the IMSAI S-100 bus (see www.imsai.net) which pre-dated the Altair by several months. The Altair was better known but actually second."
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No wonder he went ballistic! Actually, that article told of an early predecessor to the IMSAI 8080 that was developed prior to the announcement of the Altair, but tentatively based on a DEC bus instead of what became known as the S-100 bus, introduced by MITS in the Altair. The article was sent to Ed by a "well meaning friend", and subsequently incensed Ed to the point of "Attack Mode".

Ed's later reply was tendered in a polite and conciliatory fashion; not in the gruff manner depicted in computer history books and the Turner Network Television movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley". I hope to nurture the line of communication with him, and to clarify much of the misinformation that has propagated over the years about him and the Altair.

I wish to state for the record that the Altair 8800, introduced in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine, paved the way for many companies (including IMSAI) to produce improved and add-on components and systems which eventually developed into the phenomenon known as "the computer revolution". Altair was first, IMSAI was better, proven by the large number of systems and kits sold, and acclaimed acceptance by users and value-added resellers alike.

I replied to Ed that I have always rejected the notion that the IMSAI 8080 was the first "computer clone" since it doesn't resemble the Altair in any way other than choice of bus and cabinet color. Color choice was carried over from Bill Millard's days working for, and with IBM. But history is written by authors and preserved according to relevance and "spin". -trf

Happily, all seems to be reconciled, with the unexpected result that Ed Roberts and IMSAI 8080 creator Joe Killian have "virtually" met and communicated in a polite and respectful manner for the first time ever, a direct result of my having copied e-mail communications to each during resolution of the misunderstanding. A further benefit is revelation of significant details that add to the collective history of the earliest "personal computers". Ed has offered correction of several distortions of history which I have posted to the comp.os.cpm newsgroup. Hopefully, those opposing viewpoints and corrections will propagate. I will provide additional information as time and necessity dictate.

Ed Roberts offered an "unbiased" review of the IMSAI 8080 in early 1976. My thanks to Michael Holley for these interesting links to a review of the IMSAI 8080 by Ed Roberts published in the April 1976 MITS publication "Computer Notes:

Obituary...
Bruce Van Natta, early IMSAI co-founder and later visionary for MicroPro International's WordStar word processing program was found murdered in a cabin on his rural Redding, California property on September 21, 2003. Bruce's eccentric genius and enigmatic, but sometimes abrasive and challenging character endeared him to some, but alienated others. Bruce worked closely with IMSAI Chief Engineer Joe Killian and IMSAI founder Bill Millard to bring about one of, if not the most successful of the first "personal computers". More detail surrounding his death can be found at the Redding, California Searchlight newspaper link: Dead man was tech pioneer

06-29-2004- It's strikes me as ironic that Bruce was murdered by a man named Morrow (no relation to another personal computing pioneer). The sentencing phase of Bruce's murderer is set: 50-year sentence for murder

George Morrow, early Silicon Valley North personal computer pioneer (Micro Stuff, ThinkerToys, Morrow Micro Designs, etc.) passed away on May 7, 2003 at age 69. I knew him as a fellow attendee of the old Homebrew Computer Club meetings, but more frequently as another Mike Quinn Electronics customer. More detail at... http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1008_3-1000732.html

Adam Osborne- March 18, 2003 at age 64 ...
As an early industry pundit for budding microcomputer industry publications, Adam was a harsh critic of manufacturers and their level of customer service. For him, IMSAI was "low hanging fruit"; an easy target, and often taken to task for one failing or another. Nancy and I were somewhat befriended by him when we took over production of IMSAI products in late 1979, and his positive comments helped us enjoy better customer relations than our predecessors... Obituary in San Jose Mercury News

Les Solomon: In memoriam: A genuine computer pioneer

It is with great sadness that I pass on news that the man probably most influential in the launching of the Altair and subsequent S-100 bus industry has passed away. An e-mail received from our good friend Stan Veit gives us the general details as follows:

"On Sat October 19, 2002 Les Solomon, "the Father of The Personal Computer" ( or as Les said, * "At least the midwife") passed away. Les had been sick , was on dialysis and oxygen when he broke his hip in a fall. He seemed to be getting better and was planning to return to Florida, but he took a turn for the worse and died. He had asked not be put on extreme life support and just closed his eyes Saturday evening. He is survived by his second wife Marlene who took such wonderful care of him. Les acted as father and grandfather to her children and they were at his side. Les was 80 years old.

"Les lived many lives during his lifetime. He was part the OSS during World War II being sent by the U.S. Army into Occupied Holland as a radio operator with the Dutch underground. He was one of a group of Americans who brought Jewish survivors of the Nazi Death Camps into Israel on an old LST under the guns of the British Navy. He fought in the Jewish War of Independence in 1947.

"After WW II he attended Utrecht University in Holland under a scholarship from the Dutch government graduating as an Electrical Engineer. Les returned to the US and worked for GE. He also developed electronic projects published in Popular Electronics magazine. He finally joined that magazine as technical editor and later Technical Director. Les is credited with assisting in the development of the Altair project that produced the first practical home microcomputer. He also worked on other major computer projects for the magazine including the Penny Whistle modem, The [Processor Technology] SOL Computer ( named after him), and many others.

"I met Les when he came into my computer store The Computer Mart of New York with a computer powered by two lemons in series, using an RCA 1802 CPU! We became lifelong friends writing a book together and working on many projects after I went to work at Popular Electronics magazine. I will miss him. When I moved we would visit with each other after he began to spend his winters in Florida. The Computer Industry has lost a visionary and a person who saw the future when others doubted if there was any future in those little boxes. -Stan Veit"

The world is just a little poorer today, given the loss of someone as insightful and of resource to promote a new realm of computing and thinking, putting the design and development of an entirely new technology into the hands of common people with uncommon ideas and goals. Thank you Les...
-trf

* An e-mail received on 6-27-2004 from MITS Altair founder Ed Roberts corrects the reference to Les being the "midwife" as erroneous. A portion of his e-mail states...

"Your site mentions Mr. Solomon as being the "midwife" of the Altair. This is not true, he had absolutely nothing to do with the concept or design of the Altair. Indeed, he thought it a bad idea. Art Salsberg who was managing editor at Pop Electronics was the individual responsible for publishing the article."