ralphw@ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) (08/09/88)
In article <509@aiva.ed.ac.uk> ken@uk.ac.ed.aiva (Ken Johnson,E32 SB x212E) writes: >In article <677@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.UUCP (Blair P. Houghton) writes >about `Mythical microprocessors'. > >The first computer I ever used, in about 1970, was called the `Linc >Eight', a machine the size of a wardrobe with 4K of memory in real >ferrite core store and inch-wide Dec-tape. Alan Kay speaks fondly of the Linc series processors in the history of personal computing, but I don't recall him referring to the tape thing as Dec-tape, although he mentioned that it was similar. As I recall, the early LINCS were considered personal computers because the owner could see over top of them when placed on a desk. (I saw the 'Doing with Images makes Symbols' tape today.) I believe 2500 were made, and many are still operating today, since they are used to support neurobiology research, and neurons haven't speeded up that much in 20 years. Disclaimer: I may be confusing this with some other machine, but I recall a TX-2 used for Sutherland's Sketchpad program, then a LINC, then this desktop monster with a mouse, and so on. -- - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: ralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu Phone:(412)268-{2847,3275} CMU-{BUGS,DARK} Amateur Packet Radio: N3FGW@W2XO, or c/o W3VC, CMU Radio Club, Pittsburgh, PA
wgtr@cgchd4.uucp (Graham Tritt) (09/02/88)
There are some old hands around, I see ... can anyone give me comments on the
lesser-known machines of the PDP series from DEC? I understand that almost
every number from 1 to 20 was used for some machine at some time.
If there are individual reports, eventually I'll get around to summarizing
them together.
If I can see further, it's because I stand on the shoulders of others ...
__________
Graham D. Tritt | ______|__
P.O. Box 302, 3000 Berne 25, Switzerland | | _ |
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Telephone: +41 31 82 34 79 +41 61 32 61 65 | | |_ + _| |
Uucp: wgtr@cgch.uucp uunet!mcvax!cernvax!cgch!wgtr |__| |_| |
|_________|cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) (09/02/88)
Sorry to bother you all with this, gang, but the my problem should be
obvious. /bernie\
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 88 11:33:30 EDT
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Date: Fri, 02 Sep 88 11:32:03 -0400
From: cosell@wilma
I'm not sure what you already know, or quite what it is you want to learn,
but...
PDP-1 the first of DEC's "family". The scion of the long an honorable
"18 bit" computers.
The next computer in this line was the PDP-4: it wasn't really a descendent
of the -1: the pdp1 was a _quite_ limited architecture (and in particular,
they hadn't "invented" index registers yet, and so the -1 became "old" pretty
quick!). The pdp-4 spawned the pdp-7 and pdp-9, all 18-bit'ers.
As a separate thread, DEC built what was probably the first asynchronous
computer: the PDP-6. The "flow chart" for figuring out how long an
instruction took to execute spread across two pages in the manual (two pages
of pretty small bubbles!). The pdp-6 grew into the pdp-10 and later
decsystem20. All 36-bit word machines (still clinging to six-bit bytes,
spawned by the original FIODEC codes used by the Soroban
auotmatic-typewriters used as consoles.
There is the pdp-8 line, I _think_ the next entry in that was the pdp-15.
And there is the (in)famous pdp-11.
As I survey the list, I see that 2,3,5 are missing among the low ones: I
vaugely recall hearing about a pdp5, but I think that there never were 2's or
3's. I lost track (and interest) when the pdp11 appeared, so I have no clue
about 12, 13,.... (although I'm _sure_ no marketing person would let them try
to sell a "pdp13"! :-).
Try checking out "Computer Engineering, A DEC view of hardware systems
design" by Bell, Mudge & McNamara (digital press...surprise! :-))
__
/ ) Bernie Cosell
/--< _ __ __ o _ BBN Sys & Tech, Cambridge, MA 02238
/___/_(<_/ (_/) )_(_(<_ cosell@bbn.comrodd@dasys1.UUCP (Rod Dorman) (09/06/88)
In article <29289@bbn.COM> cosell@BBN.COM (Bernie Cosell) writes: >There is the pdp-8 line, I _think_ the next entry in that was the pdp-15. > ... vaugely recall hearing about a pdp5, The PDP-5 was the predecessor of the PDP-8. The PDP-15 was the successor to the PDP-9. The PDP-12 was the successor to the LINK-8. -- Rod -- Rod Dorman {sun!hoptoad,cmcl2!phri}!dasys1!rodd Big Electric Cat Public Unix "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't"