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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Morli on April 3, 2010 at 2:40am

sad day indeed, never knew the story , thanks for reminding me.

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AdminPermalink Reply by Thomas J Coyle III on April 3, 2010 at 9:51am

Gary,

I remember reading that 1975 issue of 'Poptronics in my company's library and, being a poor student at the time, could not come up with the ~$400 for one of Ed's kits. However in my senior year in college, I managed to buy a MOS Technology KIM6502 which I hooked to a bus extender called a KIMSAI. In search of an 8K BASIC for the KIM's 6502 processor, I got in touch with a small outfit run by some guys named Gates and Allen. They had ported the ALTAIR 8K 8080 BASIC to the 6502. The rest is history.

I never realized that Ed was only a couple of years older than myself. We will truly miss him!

Regards,
TCIII

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Permalink Reply by Jerry W. Saveriano on April 3, 2010 at 10:35am

Thanks for linking to my post Gary. I was aware of much of what Roberts had contributed to the PC industry, but not the whole story. It was good that Gates was able to be at his side before Roberts died.

I learned a lot by doing the research for the post. It's like Jobs mentioned in the video of his Stanford talk. We can't connect the dots in one's life until it's over.

Ed Roberts dots burn bright, like Altair in the Constellation Aquila.

jws

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