In a message dated 1/11/2017 2:01:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
RichA at 
livingcomputers.org writes:
From:  Noel Chiappa
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 5:40 AM
 >  From: Eric Smith 
 > I have a computer of the type that Gates and
Allen used for that early
> development. :-)
> I don't  have it running, though. 
  Really? Which model processor; KA, KI,  KL? 
Eric's got a KL.  If he had a KA, I would have tracked him  down and beaten
him to a pulp to lay hands on it--and we're  friends.
  PS: Apparently Gates and Allen at one point rented
time  on a commercial
 service in Boston to do development; anyone know who  that was, and what
 machine/OS is was? 
Nope.  They moved to  Albuquerque as soon as the deal with MITS was done.
(Ed Roberts hired Paul  as his VP of software development on the spot.)
They rented time from the  Albuquerque school district, whose -10 had
unused capacity.   (Development of the BASIC interpreter was famously done
using the Harvard  KA-10.)
They went from renting time on others' systems to owning their  own when
they moved from Albuquerque back to Seattle.  Their first was  a KS under
TOPS-20.
I have all this not merely from Paul's book, but  from another friend who
was Microsoft employee #11 (who appears in the  famous picture) and others
like David Bunnell at our grand  opening.
Rich
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems  Engineer
Living Computers: Museum + Labs
2245 1st Avenue S
Seattle,  WA 98134
mailto:RichA at 
LivingComputers.org
http://www.LivingComputers.org/
I had  heard   Altair  code for the roms and  stuff  was developed  on  an
Intel Intellect 8   system?
Is this  fact ,  Fiction or??
Ed#  _www.smecc.org_ (
http://www.smecc.org)