Bill Gates reveals legendary code that started Microsoft’s history
Bill Gates publishes the code that launched his empire (Photo: Getty Images)
Today, April 4, Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, company founder Bill Gates has published the source code for the Altair BASIC interpreter - the very code that marked the beginning of the tech giant’s story, reports PCWorld.
"The coolest code I’ve ever written." This is how Bill Gates begins his new blog post, marking the 50th anniversary of Microsoft. In it, he nostalgically recalls how the company that changed the world of technology got its start.
At the bottom of the post, Gates included the source code he speaks so fondly of - the very code that ultimately launched Microsoft’s rise to success. You can download the original Microsoft source code here (PDF).
How Microsoft began
In January 1975, Bill Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen read an article in Popular Electronics about the Altair 8800 home computer from a small company called MITS. "When Paul and I saw that cover, we knew two things: the PC revolution was imminent, and we wanted to get in on the ground floor," Gates recalls.
They planned to create software that would allow Altair 8800 owners to write their programs in an easy-to-learn programming language, BASIC. That’s why Gates and Allen decided to develop the BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800.
The interpreter would convert BASIC commands into machine code that the Altair 8800 could understand. The software was designed to fit within a maximum memory of 4 kilobytes, leaving enough resources for other programs to run.
Microsoft’s first software was completed in two months - for a computer they didn’t even own.
Since they didn’t have an Intel 8080 chip - the one used in the Altair 8800 - Paul Allen created a simulator that ran on the Harvard PDP-10 mainframe. During this time, Bill Gates wrote the core code for the BASIC interpreter, while another programmer, Monty Devidoff, worked on what was called the "math package."
After about two months, the work was complete. They presented the interpreter to MITS, which agreed to license the software. This led to the creation of Altair BASIC - the first product from the newly formed company, Micro-Soft (the hyphen was later removed).
"It’s amazing to think how this one piece of code led to half a century of innovation at Microsoft. Before there was Office or Windows 95 or Xbox or AI, there was this source code - and I still enjoy looking at it, even all these years later," Gates said.
Bill Gates published the source code that ultimately led the company to success (Photo: Gates Notes)
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