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Ed Roberts created the personal computer industry (2023)

How Ed Roberts created the personal computer industry—and then walked away

Armed with the new deal, Yates began designing circuit boards for a computer based on the 8080, while Roberts created the logic interface—or series of instructions—that would allow their new microprocessor to work with up to 256 bytes of memory and a 2MHZ clock. In the spring of 1974, Solomon and Art Salsberg, Popular Electronics’ seditor in chief, became convinced that they needed to feature a computer on the cover to boost sales over their rivals at Radio-Electronics. In this role, he saw Paul Allen and Bill Gates move to secure the IP rights for the Altair version of BASIC from under the company, claiming they had always belonged to Microsoft.

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