Youtube Videos
PDP-11/05 computer booting RT-11 from TU56 DECtape
PDP-11/10 running paper tape BASIC using a high speed reader / punch
PDP-11/05 � A restoration project
PDP-11/45 running Adventure on LA30
Mattis Lind: DATORMUSEUM.SE
Inside a DEC PDP-11/34 computer from 1978
PDP-11/04 and 11/34 Restoration
PDP-11/34 with RL01 drives
Vintage DEC RL02 hard disk spin-up
New Arrival: DEC RL02 Disk System
PDP 11/70
Digital DEC PDP-11 � Disc Packs, Tape Drives and Terminals!
PDP-8/i tour and demo
How to Program a Vintage PDP-8 via the Front Panel
PiDP-11:
Obsolescence Guaranteed /
to go to the website,
click here!
PiDP11 Kit Build - Part 1 (of 4)
DEC and the PiDP-11
Computer History: DEC PDP-11 CPUs and Architecture
Building the PiDP-8 � An Amazing Replica of a Vintage Computer
PiDP: A modern replica of the PDP-8/I
Programming the PDP-11, part 1 of 4
Lyle Bickley explains the PDP-1 (and we play the original Spacewar!) /
to view the
short version,
click here!
Bill Gates and the PDP-1 Computer at the 'Computer History Museum'
The Mouse that Roared: PDP-1 Celebration Event
DEC PDP-11 & Zork � Computerphile
PDP-11 Lunar Lander Program in Basic
PDP-8 flashing Christmas tree lights
DEC Disk History
DECtalk DTC-01
I was an engineer at DEC High performance systems about 1983. We used to host
leading architects of the day from other firms to come and speak about their
work, their impressions of DEC products etc. This was hosted and moderated by
Gordon Bell the VP of engineering for DEC. At one point a lead guy from CDC came
to talk. As he went on he referred to DEC Talk as sounding like a "Drunken Swede"
but otherwise a remarkable product. The DEC Talk inventor put up his hand and in
a heavy Swedish accent said, "I beg your pardon but I was not drunk". Turns out
some of DEC Talks oddities did derive from it's inventors first language. ~
Geoffrey Feldman
DECtalk sings White Christmas
DECtalk singing basics
DECtalk PC Speech Synthesizer
Intressant historia:
Why the Soviet Computers Failed
DEC PDP-8 RS08 Disk Drive Platter Removal
The Early Architectures of DEC
DEC internvideo:
Escalate and Communicate
Ken Olsen DEC 1957 � 1989
Info
PDP-1 Restoration Project /
photo
Introducing PDPjs, a PDP-11 Emulator
PDP-11 Emulator to Run Dungeon on RT-11 V4.0
Here's a tip: Get started by typing boot rk1 and RUN DUNGEO. For additional
help
click here and to explore the walkthrough,
click here.
Early PDP-11 Peripherals
Vintage Digital PDP-11 Computers
Google Search results:
PDP-11 restoration
PDP-11's, RSX-11, Pro 350's, RT-11, Y2K issues and more�
ALTAVISTA � The tragic tale Of The Search Engine Pioneer
LSI-11 / (PDP-11/03)
/
User manual
The
LSI-11 was DEC's first cost-reduced PDP-11 CPU, introducing the QBUS, and
using the LSI-11 chip set. It was the first of the LSI-11 CPUs; it had the same
QBUS limitations, and use of ODT for control, as the others.
DECmate
Rainbow 100
VT52 Video Terminal
VT101 Video Terminal
LA36 DECwriter II Terminal
Role of the PDP 11 in the history of the computer
If one thinks of the PDP-8 as the �model T� computer (cheap,
and designed for mass production), then the PDP-11 is the big old 1950�s car!
Loaded with features and with loads of horsepower, the PDP-11 CPU features
memory-mapped I/O (common on many later microprocessors like the 6502 in which
one simply MOVES a value to an I/O device rather than use a special IN or OUT
instruction), eight working registers, and the ability of these registers to
operate in many rich addressing modes. For example, a register could act to hold
a simple value {MOV #500,R2}, or could be used as a pointer {MOV (R2),R0}, and
even auto-increment {SUB (R2)+,R0}. Featuring an orthogonal instruction set,
instructions like MOVE could use memory addresses or registers as operands. This
was one of the first implementations of this type of architecture and we see
this legacy live-on even today in chips like Microchip�s dsPIC series (among
many, many others).
"Washing-machine size" applied to the disk drives of the 1970s and 80s
The DEC RP04 Disk Drive
The DEC RP06 Disk Drive
.jpg)
Over a 25 year span, DEC manufactured more than a dozen variations of the PDP-8 and sold over 10,000 machines.
The
Canadian Chalk River Nuclear Lab approached Digital Equipment Corporation in
1964. It needed a special device to monitor a reactor.
Instead of designing a custom, hard-wired controller as expected, young DEC
engineers C. Gordon Bell and Edson de Castro did something unusual: they
developed a small, general purpose computer and programmed it to do the job.
A later version of that machine became the PDP-8, one of the most successful
computers of the next decade.
The first model of
DEC PDP-8 computer in the rear of a VW bug
Karen Ericksen, a DEC salesperson, with a "classic" PDP-8
in the back seat of a Volkswagen Beetle convertible.
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DEC PDP-8
(Straight-8)
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When I describe a PDP-8 to someone
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Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made its mark producing relatively low-cost, department-size computers. But even close industry watchers were surprised by DEC�s introduction of the PDP-8 in 1965.
At just 250 pounds, the PDP-8 was amazingly small for its time. It caused shockwaves through the industry, giving birth to an entirely new class of non-mainframe computers: the �mini-computer.� �Mini-computer� was catchy name and gave the PDP-8 an identity at a time when the mini-skirt was in fashion and miniscule cars like the mini-Cooper were all the rage. It was also surprisingly inexpensive: just $16,000 when released; subsequent versions could be had for as little as $5,000 by 1972.
Smaller Packaging: The Flip Chip Card
The PDP-8's electronic components were mounted on small inexpensive "Flip Chip" modules about the size of playing cards, plugged into connectors on a panel. The wire interconnections on the back of the panel were automatically made by a machine that wrapped wires around metal pins sticking out of the connectors, which significantly reduced cost.
The Flip Chip cards, smaller than the cards in the predecessor PDP-5, were originally designed for unpackaged diodes and transistors densely mounted on ceramic substrates. That idea failed. But with clever layout, DEC engineers were able to squeeze conventionally packaged components into the new smaller size.
For the next compatible machine, the PDP-8I, the Flip Chip cards held integrated circuits instead, which packed much more logic into the same space.
The PDP-8E (pictured below) was also significant for its use of a system bus, which enabled customers to add new capabilities to the computer, without rewiring components. The PDP-8 (and indeed all minicomputers) opened up computing to entirely new areas of application. PDP-8�s found uses as process controllers in manufacturing, in laboratory analysis, in hospitals to monitor medical equipment, and for small business record keeping. A PDP-8 was used to control the news display in Times Square; another, the scoreboard at Fenway Park. All told, DEC shipped some 50,000 PDP-8s. One DEC engineer called it the �Model T of computing.�
