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The Altair BASIC interpreter was developed by Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates with help from Monte Davidoff, using a self made Intel 8080 software simulator running on a minicomputer. It was delivered on paper tape and in its original version took 4 KB of memory. The extended 8K version was then generalized into BASIC-80 (8080/85, Z80), and ported into BASIC-68 ( 6800), BASIC-69 ( 6809The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit microprocessor from Motorola, introduced circa 1979. The 6809 was a major advance over both its predecessors, the in-house Motorola 6800 and the latter's near clone the MOS Technology 6502. some would say 8/16-bit — see Descr), and MOS Technology 6502The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced it was the least expensive full featured CPU on the market by far, at about 1/6th the price, or less, of competing designs from larger companies-BASIC (unfortunately spilling over to 9KB, in an era when 8K ROM chips were standard), as well as the 16-bit BASIC-86 ( 8086/88The 8086 is a 16- bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel in 1978, which gave rise to the x86 architecture. Shortly later the Intel 8088 was introduced with an external 8-bit bus, allowing the use of cheap chipsets. It was based on the design of the 808).

After the initial success of Altair BASIC, Microsoft BASIC became the basis for a lucrative software licensing business, being ported to the majority of the numerous homeThe home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. The home computer became affordable for the general and personal computerThe term personal computer or PC has three meanings: IBM's range of PCs that led to the use of the term see IBM PC. A generic term used to describe all microcomputers (mentioned here). A generic term sometimes used to describe a computer based on IBM's ors of the 1970s and especially the 1980s, and extended along the way. Contrary to the original Altair BASIC, most home computer BASICs were resident in ROMRead-only memory (ROM is used as a storage medium in computers. Because it cannot (easily) be written to, its main uses lie in the distribution of software that is very closely related to hardware, and not likely to need frequent upgrading. One common use, and thus were available on the machines at power-on in the form of the characteristic "READY."-prompt. Hence, Microsoft's and other variants of BASIC constituted a significant and visible part of many home computers' rudimentary operating systemIn computing, an operating system OS is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations, as well as running application software such as word processing programs and web browsers. In general, ts.