Microsoft founder Bill Gates reflects upon a 50-year-old computer code that reshaped technology

Even as he grows older, Microsoft founder Bill Gates still fondly remembers the catalytic computer code he wrote 50 years ago that opened up a new frontier in technology.

- By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer

Although the code that Gates printed out on a teletype machine may look crude compared to what's powering today's artificial intelligence platforms, it played a critical role in creating Microsoft in April 1975 — a golden anniversary that the Redmond, Washington, company will celebrate on Friday.

Gates, 69, set the stage for that jubilee with a blog post reminiscing on how he and his old high school friend — the late Paul Allen — scrambled to create the world's first "software factory" after reading an article in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine about the Altair 8800, a minicomputer that would be powered by a tiny chip made by the then-obscure technology company, Intel.