Programmed Data Processor (abbreviated PDP) was the name of a series of computers, several of them ground-breaking and very influential, made by Digital Equipment Corporation. They were given that name because at the time of their introduction, computers had a reputation of being large and expensive machines, and the PDP machines were aimed at a market which couldn't afford the larger computers. A drawing of the everyday computer. ... Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering company in the American computer industry. ...

The various PDP machines can generally be grouped into families based on word length. With the notable exception of the 16-bit PDP-11, the architectures show strong similarities, with the 36-bit PDP-6 and PDP-10 architecture being the most elaborate. Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson at a PDP-11 The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ... The PDP-6 (Programmed Data Processor-6) was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1963. ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many...

PDP series

PDP-11/04 or 11/34 with RK05 moving-head disk drive, RX01/2 dual 8" diskette drive, and third-party magnetic tape drive. Photo taken by Jane Whitby.

Members of the PDP series include: Image File history File links Pdp11. ... Image File history File links Pdp11. ... Disk Drive is the afternoon show on CBC Radio Two. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that comprises a circular piece of thin, flexible (hence floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic wallet. ... Magnetic tape is a non-volatile storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip. ...

• PDP-1: The original PDP, an 18-bit machine used in early time-sharing operating system work, and prominent in early hacker culture. One of the first computer games, Spacewar, was developed for this machine.
• PDP-3: First 36-bit machine DEC designed, though DEC did not offer it as a product. The only PDP-3 was built by a customer in 1960. Architecturally it was essentially a PDP-1 stretched to 36-bit word width.
• PDP-4: Supposed to be a slower, cheaper alternative to the PDP-1, but not commercially successful; all later PDP 18-bit machines were based on its instruction set.
• PDP-5: DEC's first 12-bit machine. Introduced the instruction set later used in the PDP-8. As a cost-saving measure, the memory location at address zero was used as the program counter, rather than the more typical approach of using a dedicated hardware register.
• PDP-6: 36-bit timesharing machine. Very elegant architecture. It was considered a large minicomputer or a mainframe.
• PDP-7: Replacement for the PDP-4; DEC's first wire-wrapped machine. The first version of Unix was for this machine.
• PDP-8: 12-bit machine with a tiny instruction set; DEC's first wildly successful computer. The first successful "personal computer", many were purchased by schools, university departments, and research laboratories. Later models were also used in the DECmate word processor and the VT-78 workstation.
• LINC-8: A hybrid of the LINC and PDP-8 computers; two instruction sets. Progenitor of the PDP-12.
• PDP-9: Successor to the PDP-7, DEC's first micro-programmed machine.
• PDP-10: 36-bit timesharing machine, and fairly successful over several different models. The instruction set was a slightly elaborated form of that of the PDP-6.
• PDP-11: 16-bit machine, widely regarded as the best 16-bit instruction set ever created, and another huge hit for DEC. Also the LSI-11, primarily for embedded systems. The VAX series was descended from it.
• PDP-12: Descendant of the LINC-8.
• PDP-14: A 12-bit machine intended as an industrial controller.
• PDP-15: DEC's final 18-bit machine. Their only 18-bit machine constructed from TTL integrated circuits rather than discrete transistors. Later versions of the system were referred to as the "XVM" family.
• PDP-16: A "roll-your-own" sort of computer using Register Transfer Modules, mainly intended for industrial control systems with more capability than the PDP-14. The PDP-16/M was introduced as a standard version of the PDP-16.

The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) was the first computer in Digital Equipments PDP series and was first produced in 1960. ... Alternate uses: see Timesharing Time-sharing is an approach to interactive computing in which a single computer is used to provide apparently simultaneous interactive general-purpose computing to multiple users by sharing processor time. ... In computing, an operating system ( aka, OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Hacker is a term used to describe people who create and modify computer software and computer hardware. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Screenshot of Spacewar Spacewar was an early video game by Stephen Slug Russell, a multiplayer space-combat simulation inspired by Doc Smiths Lensman series of science fiction novels. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), describes the aspects of a computer architecture visible to a programmer, including the native datatypes, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O (if any). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The program counter (also called the instruction pointer in some computers) is a register in a computer processor which indicates where the computer is in its instruction sequence. ... The PDP-6 (Programmed Data Processor-6) was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1963. ... Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (traditionally, mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ... Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ... DEC PDP-7 Minicomputer(circa 1965) A modified PDP-7 under restoration in Oslo, Norway The DEC PDP-7 is a minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation. ... Wire wrap is a technique for constructing small numbers of complex electronics. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to UNIX Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... A PDP-8 on display at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.. This example is from the first generation of PDP-8s, built with discrete transistors and later known as the Straight 8. ... Lincoln Financial Field, familiarly known as The Linc, is the home stadium of the National Football Leagues Philadelphia Eagles. ... A microprogram is a program consisting of microcode that controls the different parts of a computers central processing unit (CPU). ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many... Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson at a PDP-11 The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ... An embedded system is a special-purpose computer system, which is completely encapsulated by the device it controls. ... VAX is a 32-bit computing architecture that supports an orthogonal instruction set (machine language) and virtual addressing (i. ... A Motorola 68000-based computer with various TTL chips. ... Optical Microscope image of an integrated circuit showing defects in the aluminium layer deposition. ...

Related computers

• LINC (Laboratory Instrument Computer), originally designed by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, some built by DEC. Not in the PDP family, but important as progenitor of the PDP-12. The LINC and the PDP-8 can be considered the first minicomputers, and perhaps the first personal computers as well. The PDP-8 and PDP-11 were the most popular of the PDP series of machines. Digital never made a PDP-20, although the term was sometimes used for a PDP-10 running TOPS-20.

• DVK personal computers series is a PDP clones developed in USSR in 70s.

Lincoln Financial Field, familiarly known as The Linc, is the home stadium of the National Football Leagues Philadelphia Eagles. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a university located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is one of the worlds leading research institutions in science and technology, as well as in numerous other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... MIT Lincoln Laboratory, also known as Lincoln Lab, is a federally funded research and development center managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and funded by the United States Department of Defense. ... Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (traditionally, mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ... The most famous computer that never was. ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many... The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC was the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10. ... DVK-2 (ПЭВМ ДВК-2М) computer. ...

References

• C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John E. McNamara, Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design (Digital, 1979)

This article is about Gordon Bell, the computer engineer. ...

External links

• Mark Crispin's 1986 list of PDP's
• DEC's PDP-6 was the worlds first commercial time-sharing system Gordon Bell interview at the Smithsonian