H. Edward Roberts died this week at age 68. If you don't know the story of how Roberts helped launch the personal computing revolution, let us fill you in.

Back in 1970, Ed Roberts had just finished serving at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory designing circuits for missiles. Along with a close friend, Forrest M. Mims III, he decided to open a business from his garage selling build-it-yourself electronics kits to hobbyists.