Microsoft

Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, supplied the BASIC interpreter that underpinned nearly every home computer of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and by the time of the Tatung Einstein's 1984 launch was already one of the most important software companies in the world. This archive credits Microsoft with a BASIC interpreter and compiler for the Einstein alongside Multiplan (1982), Microsoft's pioneering electronic spreadsheet that predated Excel, plus the official Microsoft BASIC reference manual and a guide to un-protecting BASIC programs for recovery and debugging.

Microsoft's presence in the Einstein's software library reflects how central its BASIC and early productivity tools were to business microcomputers of the era, well beyond the IBM PC compatibles the company is best remembered for today.