

Altair developer Ed Roberts dies in Ga. - waterlesscloud
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6940303.html

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TomOfTTB
Can I just say this made me admire the man even more...

But he never lost his interest in modern technology, even asking about Apple's
highly anticipated iPad from his sick bed.

"He was interested to see one," said Roberts, who called his father "a true
renaissance man."

That's how I want to go out...loving technology to the very last second. RIP
Mr. Roberts

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comatose_kid
Bill Gates wrote about him as well:

<http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Thinking/article.aspx?ID=126>

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johnohara
He was more visionary than people realize.

To me, the S100 bus always represented a parallel universe in personal
computing. An elegant alternative to the puzzling layout of the 5150.

There is no doubt in my mind had the S100 prevailed, all developers today
would easily recognize the relationship between hardware and software as being
a Viennese Waltz as opposed to a freshman dance in the gym.

Dr. Roberts was correct to be upset with Gates and Allen for embracing the IBM
PC. They weren't abandoning him or the Altair, they were abandoning the
architecture and its abundant possibilities.

My condolences to his family. May he RIP.

~~~
ajju
_To me, the S100 bus always represented a parallel universe in personal
computing. An elegant alternative to the puzzling layout of the 5150._

I'm too young/ignorant to know why or how the s100 was superior. Could you
elaborate?

~~~
johnohara
The bus (a backplane really) was the system. And everything plugged into it.

Here's a picture of the original Altair:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Altair_88...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Altair_8800_Computer.jpg)

Everything you needed was on a separate card that plugged into the backplane.
CPU, memory, controllers.

The IBM PC changed all that. The motherboard became the system. The amount of
memory was limited because the number of surface mounts was limited. The
number of devices was limited because you didn't have the expansion slots.
There's room in the Altair's chassis for 10 cards -- in 1977!. But where the
PC removed options, the weight of IBM created a standard which for better or
worse is still with us today.

In the picture, the two cards in the middle look like internal RAM. The total
amount is based upon the capacity of each chip. But there it is -- a memory
array. With greater capacity than the computer found on Apollo. On the
desktop. You could buy the boards and chips from Jameco or anybody else (they
came in long plastic tubes) and carefully populate the board wearing static
straps on your wrists. Need more memory, add another card. 8" floppy drive?
Add a controller. Tape drive? Add a controller. Console terminal? Add a
controller. Upgrade the processor? Install a math co-processor.

The third party market for parts and devices was robust because the bus was
standard and open.

The introduction of the IBM PC (model 5150) hit the S100 market hard. Ed
Roberts knew the S100 architecture was more flexible and invited greater
participation and innovation by inventors and hobbyists so you can see why he
might take exception to Gates and Allen providing an operating system and
programming language to its competition. But the arrival of the PC really
meant the paradigm had shifted -- from hobbyists to business and Gates and
Allen shifted with it.

For fun, let's look at the picture and try to guess at what's going on. There
is a DB25 connector in the upper left corner. That's where the serial console
plugged in. Usually a teletype device of some kind (like the devices in this
picture: <http://www.netbsd.org/images/machines/vax/vax11-780.jpg>). Looks
like the pinouts were hand soldered. It's what you did. The back panel has
plenty of expansion for other DB25 connectors to support printers, other
terminals (multi-user O/S) and more.

The power supply is attached to the back in the upper right. The power bus is
immediately to its left. You'd recognize that as the white block on today's
motherboards. Note the quality of the bearings on the fan and how it's wired.
The thing moved air.

The device underneath the main chassis is an 8" floppy drive. It's powered up,
the disk is enabled (notched in the corner) but the heads look retracted
(parked).

Note some of the switches in front. On/Off, reset and single step (to walk
through each instruction). This is an 8 bit machine and each instruction is
displayed in byte order (right to left). It looks like one set of lights
displays the "address" (a0-a7) and the other displays the "data" value found
at the address (d0-d7).

So we are currently in single step mode, at address location 10110110 (B6 hex)
and it contains the value 11111111 (FF hex). Hit the single step switch again
and let's debug the next instruction.

~~~
rbanffy
Buses like the S100 have a problem: plug-and-play is next to impossible with
them. When you plug a memory board, you have to set the switches to its
address and the same happens with I/O and storage - everything must be
configured more or less by hand. The S-100 is, more or less, the naked
processor bus.

The ISA bus is a lot like S-100 - it was possible to buy a PC on a card and
plug it into a PC backplane along your other cards.

But I agree. The 5150 was an abomination.

~~~
johnohara
DEC did well with the Q-22 bus on their PDP's, MicroVax I and II products.
Motorola did well with the VME bus as well.

Address collisions on the backplane were part of the process.

But you're right. It's not cool anymore to ask grandma to set switches right
out of the box.

~~~
rbanffy
By the mid 70's, it was perfectly OK to ask a computer-using grandma to set
switches ;-)

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fexl
Ah, I remember Altair ads in Byte magazine, right next to code listings for
"Hunt the Wumpus." <pang>

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edw519
01010010 01001001 01010000

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flipp
RIP

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDL_ZHMdvU&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDL_ZHMdvU&feature=related)

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rbanffy
I am deeply saddened to hear this. The ones who start revolutions without
wanting to, those are the most precious.

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syncerr
Damn, the mind behind Altair is dead?. I loved Assassin's Creed!... oh, nvm.

