MITS Unleashes Keyboard-less, 2Mhz Altair 8800

See that keyboard and flat-screen display on your desk? Throw them out—you're not going to need them anymore. A new system in the pipeline does away with such tired concepts as keys, mice, and graphical user interfaces, and in the process, it's striking fear into the hearts of computer makers everywhere. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Altair 8800 from MITS.

I've seen a lot of desktop systems in my time, but I can safely say I've never seen anything quite like the 8800. First of all, MITS is shipping the Altair as a kit, which serves as a nice test of your DIY mettle (although you can order a fully assembled version of the system for an extra charge). Also putting the 8800 in a class by itself is its revolutionary LED display—or rather, a series of LEDs that deliver information in an entirely new and binary way. You can program the Altair using the eight "Sense Switches" on its front panel; it's a clever way around the tedious process of typing on a keyboard. Worried about processing power? Don't be; the 8800 will ship with 256 bytes of RAM, along with a 2Mhz Intel 8080A processor. Get ready to rock.

Look for the Altair 8800 to arrive later this year for $595; MITS hasn't released details on peripherals, although I've heard that video, serial and memory expansion cards are on the way, along with a hard drive capable of writing to 300KB floppy discs.