Origin of the "Altair" name
Thomas Fischer
The recent sequence of events related to the broughaha started by the
erroneous suggestion/statement that the pioneering Altair 8800 copied the
(falsely) "earlier IMSAI bus" has yielded another gem of historical
documentation. Search the internet and books for histories of the Altair and
Ed Roberts and you'll find several interpretations or claims as to how the
"Altair" name came to be. On July 1, 2004, Ed Roberts replied to my question
of this as follows: (note that I have made several edits to grammar and
punctuation)
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"Todd,
The name "Altair" was a suggestion made by Les Solomon after watching an
episode of Star Trek, actually came from his daughter. This was the only
contribution that Les made to the design of the Altair, contrary to popular
myth.
Regards,
Ed"
"Go forth and multiply" (correction of the wrong!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards to all,
-Thomas "Todd" Fischer
Herb Johnson
> Search the internet and books for histories of the Altair and
> Ed Roberts and you'll find several interpretations or claims as to how the
> "Altair" name came to be. On July 1, 2004, Ed Roberts replied to my question
> of this as follows: (note that I have made several edits to grammar and
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "Todd,
>
> The name "Altair" was a suggestion made by Les Solomon after watching an
> episode of Star Trek, actually came from his daughter. This was the only
> contribution that Les made to the design of the Altair, contrary to popular
> myth.
>
> Regards,
> Ed"
Todd, your post caught my interest. I've recently searched the Web via
Google a bit, over a few hours and days. There are apparently two
common statements of origin for the name "Altair" for the MITS Altair
8800 computer. One of my first "hits" from Google yielded the
following from http://oldcomputers.net/altair.html", --quote--:
Why call it "Altair"? The story is, that Les Solomon, the (then)
technical director of Popular Electronics magazine, asked his daughter
about a name, and she suggested "Altair", because "that's where the
Enterprise is going in this episode" - she was watching Star Trek, the
science fiction TV series.
Actually, Altair is a real star (Altair VI - Alpha Aquilae), and was
mentioned in only one Star Trek episode: "Amok Time", episode 34 -
original airdate: 9/16/1967.
Alternately, Forrest M. Mimms III states in the November 1984 issue of
Creative Computing that the Altair was originally going to be named
the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this
name to be rather dull, so Les, Alexander Burawa (associate editor),
and John McVeigh (technical editor) decided that "It's a stellar
event, so let's name it after a star." Within minutes, John McVeigh
said "Altair".
--end quote --
The Solomon reference can be verified from an article written by
Solomon for the book "Digital Deli" in 1984, as posted on:
http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/solomons_memory.php
Solomon's daughter, or the discussion with the daughter, apparently
occurred in or near New Mexico and MITS's offices. The Creative
Computing article by Mimms is posted on the same site in a magazine
archive:
http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/17_The_Altair_story_early_d.php
Mimms states in the lead paragraph that he is "a cofounder of MITS"
and that he "spoke to many of the principles over the phone" when
preparing the article, which covers the early history of MITS. Other
sources which cite the "stellar event" version (like Stan Viet) seem
to attribute it to Mimms. Mimms died a year or two ago. I've not
searched for direct quotes from the other two people referenced by
Mimms.
Some sites have incomplete or slightly off references to one or the
other of these two events. Les Solomon is not named, or it's Ed's
daughter, for instance. Or that Burawa, "an amateur astronomer", made
the "stellar event" statement. But my initial Web searching suggests
that most references are to one or the other of the above
explanations, or both. From a simple reading, BOTH could be true as
they are not completely inconsistent (McVeigh could have talked to
Solomon before the cited discussion, which Mimms says occured in New
York.)
One side note: there is another reference in science fiction history
to "Altair". The still-popular 1956 film "Forbidden Planet" produced
in part by Disney, had "Altair" as the name of the planet and
"Altaira" (Anne Francis) as the female lead. She was the daughter of
the mad scientist (Walter Pidgeon) and of course the love interest of
the hero (played by Leslie Neilsen). Many say Forbidden Planet was an
influence on "Star Trek", and so perhaps obliquely on personal
computing history as well.
Note: This is a newsgroup posting, not a completely researched
document, so it's subject to error and confusion. I'll likely have a
better version of this note on my S-100 Web site at some point. And of
course I'll follow any discussion of this in the newsgroup.
Herb Johnson
Herbert R. Johnson, voice 609-771-1503, New Jersey USA
<a href="http://njcc.com/~hjohnson"> my web site</a>
<a href="http://retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff"> web site mirror</a>
my email address: hjohnson AAT njcc DOTT com: wait a day and
if that fails, try herbjohnson ATT comcast DOTT net
good used Mac, SGI, 8-inch floppy drives
S-100 IMSAI Altair computers, docs, by "Dr. S-100"
Thomas Fischer
Ed Roberts made a significant point regarding to how he perceived the
"histories" of the Altair as being not only wrong, but somewhat self-serving
to the respective authors. I have to recognize his own peculiarities and
memories if I'm to honestly and accurately pass on historical relevance. I
just browsed the virtualaltair.org site and read the biggest bunch of
bunk/crap, devised by a less-than-informed author of our early history.
The biggest negative impact of this garbage is propagation by virtue of
successive authors passing it on, with due ignorance, that what they read as
being "gospel".
Ed may possibly be guilty of "realigning" facts, but Forrest Mimms III was
certainly party to the same humanistic quirk. I have a complete set of the
SCCS (Interface) publications, a product of the Southern California Computer
Society c. 1975, 1976 that seems to provide a balanced view of the
developmental history from the introduction of the Altair 8800. I hope to one
day scan and make available the series for the benefit of historians and
researchers (as well as the rest of us!) to provide the most balanced history
of perceived evolution. Should I either hit the Lottery (or get a grant), I
might make this happen sooner!
The real point is, each scribe has the power to slant/spin the story to
his/her best profile. I shun distortion of history in principle and, while
guilty of erroneous reports, am always ready to admit the error and correct it
promptly. When opposing views or interpretations arise, I think it prudent to
offer both, sometimes with comment that might add insight to final judgemant
as to what is probably the "real story". A truly accurate mechanism for
recording history may never be found, but accuracy and citation of sources
might offer the best evaluation for those inclined to seek further
information.
I have, and read, Forrest Mimms III's "Siliconnections" (thanks to a "heads
up" on availability from Bill Hemmings) and am inclined to think of his
depiction of days at MITS as "adequately inflated". Ed Roberts seems inclined
to offer sub-minor acknowledgement of Les Solomon, which seems to tickle the
imagination as to "why". There is probably much more to the story than has
been previously published. There, my friend, remains the REAL INTRIGUE!
Best regards,
-Thomas "Todd" Fischer
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