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| Henry Edward Roberts | |
|---|---|
| Name | Henry Edward Roberts |
| Birth date | 1941 |
| Birth place | Chicago |
| Death date | 2010 |
| Death place | Coos Bay, Oregon |
| Occupation | Electronic engineer, entrepreneur, inventor |
| Known for | Altair 8800, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems |
Henry Edward Roberts was an American electronic engineer and entrepreneur best known for creating the Altair 8800 microcomputer and founding Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). His work in the early 1970s helped catalyze the microcomputer revolution, influencing companies such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, Intel, Commodore International, and Tandy Corporation. Roberts's innovations connected hobbyist communities like the Homebrew Computer Club to nascent software firms and industry pioneers around Silicon Valley and Boston.
Roberts was born in Chicago and raised in a milieu shaped by postwar American industry and technological expansion. He studied aeronautical engineering and electrical engineering at institutions associated with Oregon State University and technical programs tied to United States Air Force research and development. Early professional experiences included work on telemetry projects for rocket and missile programs, linking him to contractors such as Hughes Aircraft, Raytheon, and regional suppliers in Washington (state) and California. Roberts’s technical grounding placed him among contemporaries who later contributed to platforms like the Altair 8800 and microprocessor development driven by companies such as Intel and Motorola.
In the early 1970s, Roberts co-founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a small electronics firm producing kits for hobbyists and industry customers. MITS produced products for aerospace telemetry and entered the burgeoning market for kit computers after the launch of the Intel 8080 and earlier microprocessors like the Intel 8008. Roberts led design of the Altair 8800, a kit computer introduced through an article and cover story that reached readers of publications such as Popular Electronics and connected with subscribers of Byte (magazine), Radio-Electronics, and regional electronics clubs. The Altair used a front panel and switches similar to earlier minicomputers and employed buses and expansion schemes later echoed by firms like S-100 bus developers and vendors associated with Processor Technology.
Roberts’s role at MITS involved circuit design, kit packaging, and interaction with hobbyist networks including the Homebrew Computer Club and regional chapters of Amateur Radio organizations. The Altair 8800’s release spurred third-party peripheral suppliers and accessory makers such as Pertec and Xerox PARC adopters in a broader sense, while attracting software pioneers who developed early languages and utilities for the Altair platform. The platform’s adoption stimulated competition from emerging systems by Apple Computer, North Star Computers, and Vector Graphic.
The Altair 8800’s visibility accelerated formation of software vendors and inspired the creation of firms like Microsoft when developers sought to provide interpreters and operating tools for microprocessor systems. Enthusiasts who worked with the Altair went on to found or influence companies including Apple Computer, Compaq, Tandy Corporation, and Digital Research. The machine’s architecture influenced hardware standards and peripheral ecosystems that shaped the early personal computer market alongside processors from Intel and Motorola. Roberts’s success at MITS demonstrated a viable commercial path from kit markets to mass-market systems, providing a model that guided entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Boston, Seattle, and Austin, Texas.
Roberts’s visibility also contributed to broader technological dialogues involving institutions like Stanford University, MIT, and firms such as Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor. The Altair era intersected with developments in programming languages and environments such as BASIC and assembly tools developed by companies that included Microsoft and early services from Digital Research.
After MITS, Roberts pursued other entrepreneurial and technical ventures that drew upon his background in telemetry and instrumentation. He engaged with small-scale manufacturing, consulting, and design work linking to aerospace and communications contractors including General Electric, Boeing, and regional defense suppliers. Roberts maintained contacts with hobbyist and maker communities, contributing to conferences, reunions, and retrospective exhibitions at institutions like the Computer History Museum and university archives in California and New Mexico. His later projects sometimes intersected with emerging embedded systems trends that involved processors and toolchains from Motorola and Intel and software ecosystems influenced by Microsoft Windows and Unix derivatives.
Roberts lived in the American Southwest and later on the West Coast, balancing technical work with family life and participation in enthusiast communities. He was associated with fellow pioneers such as Ed Roberts (computer engineer), Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and members of the Homebrew Computer Club though his network reached broader industry figures across Silicon Valley and the East Coast technology corridor. Roberts’s legacy persists through artifacts like original Altair units in museum collections and the documented influence of MITS on companies such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, Intel, Commodore International, and Tandy Corporation. Exhibitions and oral histories preserved at organizations like the Computer History Museum and university special collections continue to inform scholarly work and popular histories of the microcomputer era.
Category:American inventors Category:Computer pioneers Category:People from Chicago