From: Kip Koon Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2015 10:52 PM > I would be most interested in finding out more about this effort. Do you have > ongoing pictures documenting this effort? I'd love to have a PDP 8, 11, 12 > someday, but I don't have the space for something like that much less the cost > involved so I'll have to be satisfied with emulators on my PC or eventually > building one or more of these systems with current technology like the SBC6120 > if memory serves. Are there other possible alternatives? I used a PDP-8/E in > high school and college and have been quite interested in the high capability > PDPs like the PDP-11 Series for starters. I didn't know there were PDP 12 > Series computers. Are there other PDP series computers as well?
Don't confuse higher numbers with higher capabilities, or even as being related to each other. DEC created computers with 9 different architectures before the 32-bit VAX was even dreamed of. The list of Programmed Data Processors goes like this: PDP-1 18-bit word, 12-bit address PDP-2 24-bit word, paper design only PDP-3 36-bit word, paper design only PDP-4 18-bit word, 13-bit address PDP-5 12-bit word PDP-6 36-bit word, mainframe unrelated to PDP-3 PDP-7 18-bit word, PDP-4 successor PDP-8 12-bit word, PDP-5 successor PDP-9 18-bit word, PDP-7 successor PDP-10 36-bit word, PDP-6 successor mainframe PDP-11 16-bit word, 16-bit address[2] PDP-12 12-bit word, PDP-8/i + LINC hybrid PDP-14 control processor for customer-built special purpose equipment PDP-15 18-bit word, PDP-9 successor PDP-16 Register-Transfer Module hard-wired processor, PDP-14 competitor[3] There were later variants of some of these: PDP-7A PDP-8/s, PDP-8/i & /l, PDP-8/e & /f & /m, PDP-8/A PDP-9/L PDP-15/76 After 1971, they stopped naming things "PDP-n", with the exception of models of the PDP-11 (which eventually consisted of more than 20 models designated PDP-11/nn), but even there the Pro-3x0 desktop systems were called something else. Later models were microprocessor-based. The later PDP-10 models were designated DECsystem-10 and DECSYSTEM-20. The later PDP-8 models were the DECmate, DECmate II, and DECmate III (word processing desktop systems) and the VT-78, all based on Intersil or Harris microprocessors which were roughly the PDP-8/e in silicon. "high capability PDPs" = PDP-10 & follow-ons. PDP-11? Pfeh. Rich [1] 1 built by a customer, reputed to be an NSA front company. [2] With memory management, 18 or 22, in 16-bit segments. Late models could use separate instruction and data segments, for a total of 128KB in use at one time. [3] Different model lines had separate sales teams, and competed against each other across the company for sales. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:ri...@livingcomputermuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/