Inventor of Personal Computer Dead at 68

H. Edward Roberts, the man who invented the MITS Altair in 1975, generally considered by computer historians to be the first personal computer, died Thursday in Macon, Georgia. While he was not well known outside the computer industry, one of his employees, Bill Gates, came to define, and some say, control the microcomputer industry. Roberts left the computer industry in 1977, later becoming a medical doctor. Gates visited him at his bedside shortly before his death. Read the full New York Times article here. (More H. Edward Roberts stories.)