An assembled Altair 8800 microcomputer (1975)

The Altair hardly represented a revolutionary invention, but it encouraged computer experts to take the next step. The personal computer industry actually began in 1977, when Apple Computer, Inc., founded by Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, introduced the Apple II. (See Figure 2) It was one of the first pre-assembled, mass-produced personal computers. Its monitor supported relatively high-quality color graphics. The computer had its own keyboard, power supply, a floppy-disk drive and eight slots for peripheral devices, which gave users wide possibilities for add-on devices and software programs. The machine used 8-bit microprocessors (which process information in groups of 8 binary digits at a time) and had rather limited memory capacity.

Figure 2