Ed Roberts (computer engineer)
| Ed Roberts | |
|---|---|
Ed Roberts in 2002
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| Born |
Henry Edward Roberts September 13, 1941 Miami, Florida, United States |
| Died | April 1, 2010 (aged 68) Cochran, Georgia, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
University of Miami Oklahoma State University Mercer University |
| Occupation | Electrical engineer Businessman Entrepreneur Farmer Medical doctor |
| Known for | Personal computer |
| Spouse(s) |
Joan Clark (m. 1962–88) Donna Mauldin (m. 1991–99) Rosa Cooper (m. 2000–10) |
| Children | 6 |
Henry Edward "Ed" Roberts (September 13, 1941 – April 1, 2010) was an American engineer, entrepreneur and medical doctor who invented the first commercially successful personal computer in 1975. He is most often known as "the father of the personal computer". He founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970 to sell electronics kits to model rocketry hobbyists, but the first successful product was an electronic calculator kit that was featured on the cover of the November 1971 issue of Popular Electronics. The calculators were very successful and sales topped one million dollars in 1973. A brutal calculator price war left the company deeply in debt by 1974. Roberts then developed the Altair 8800 personal computer that used the new Intel 8080 microprocessor. This was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, and hobbyists flooded MITS with orders for this $397 computer kit.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen joined MITS to develop software and Altair BASIC was Microsoft's first product. Roberts sold MITS in 1977 and retired to Georgia where he farmed, studied medicine and eventually became a small-town doctor living in Cochran, Georgia.
Ed Roberts was born on September 13, 1941 in Miami, Florida to Henry Melvin Roberts, an appliance repairman, and Edna Wilcher Roberts, a homemaker. His younger sister Cheryl was born in 1947. During World War II, while his father was in the Army, Roberts and his mother lived on the Wilcher family farm in Wheeler County, Georgia. After the war, the family returned to Miami, but Roberts would spend his summers with his grandparents in rural Georgia. Roberts' father had an appliance repair business in Miami.
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