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PDP-8
The PDP-8 is a family of 12-bit minicomputers that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units sold during the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pioneering LINC but has a smaller instruction set, which is an expanded version of the PDP-5 instruction set. Similar machines from DEC are the PDP-12 which is a modernized version of the PDP-8 and LINC concepts, and the PDP-14 industrial controller system. Overview The earliest PDP-8 model, informally known as a "Straight-8", was introduced on 22 March 1965 priced at $18,500 (). It uses diode–transistor logic packaged on flip chip cards in a machine about the size of a small household refrigerator. It was the first computer to be sold for under $20,000, making it the best-selling computer in history at that time. The Straight-8 was supplanted in 1966 by the PDP-8/S, which was available in desktop and rack-mount models. Using a on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until he was forced to resign in 1992, after the company had gone into precipitous decline. The company produced many different product lines over its history. It is best known for the work in the minicomputer market starting in the early 1960s. The company produced a series of machines known as the Programmed Data Processor, PDP line, with the PDP-8 and PDP-11 being among the most successful minis in history. Their success was only surpassed by another DEC product, the late-1970s VAX "supermini" systems that were designed to replace the PDP-11. Although a number of competitors had successfully competed with Digital through the 1970s, the VAX cemented the company's place as a leading vendor in the computer space. As microcomputers improved in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Programmed Data Processor
Programmed Data Processor (PDP), referred to by some customers, media and authors as "Programmable Data Processor," is a term used by the Digital Equipment Corporation from 1957 to 1990 for several lines of minicomputers. The name "PDP" intentionally avoids the use of the term "computer". At the time of the first PDPs, computers had a reputation of being large, complicated, and expensive machines. The venture capitalists behind Digital (especially Georges Doriot) would not support Digital's attempting to build a "computer" and the term "minicomputer" had not yet been coined. So instead, Digital used their existing line of logic modules to build a ''Programmed Data Processor'' and aimed it at a market that could not afford the larger computers. The various PDP machines can generally be grouped into families based on word length. Series Members of the PDP series include: ;PDP-1: The original PDP, an 18-bit computing, 18-bit four-19-inch rack, rack machine used in early tim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intersil 6100
The Intersil 6100, or IM6100, is a single-chip microprocessor implementation of the 12-bit PDP-8 instruction set, along with a range of peripheral support and memory ICs developed by Intersil in the mid-1970s. It was sometimes referred to as the CMOS-PDP8. Since it was also produced by Harris Corporation, it was also known as the Harris HM-6100. The Intersil 6100 was introduced in the second quarter of 1975, and the Harris version in 1976. The 6100 family was produced using CMOS rather than the bipolar and NMOS technologies used by most of its contemporaries ( Z80, 8080, 6502, 6800, 9900, etc.). As a result of its CMOS technology and low clock speeds, 8 MHz for the Harris HM-6100A, it had relatively low power consumption, less than 100 mW at 10 V/2 MHz, and could be operated from a single supply over the wide range of 4–11 V. Thus, it could be used in high reliability embedded systems without the need for any significant thermal management, if th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minicomputer
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is an exceptionally large machine. Minicomputers in the traditional technical sense covered here are only small relative to generally even earlier and much bigger machines. The class formed a distinct group with its own software architectures and operating systems. Minis were designed for control, instrumentation, human interaction, and communication switching, as distinct from calculation and record keeping. Many were sold indirectly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for final end-use application. During the two-decade lifetime of the minicomputer class (1965–1985), almost 100 minicomputer vendor companies formed. Only a half-dozen remained by the mid-1980s. When single-chip CPU microprocessors appeared in the 1970s, the defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PDP-14
The PDP-14 was a specialized computer from Digital Equipment Corporation’s Industrial Products Group designed to replace industrial level relay controls for machinery and machine tools that performed repetitive tasks. It was specifically designed to function in the harsh electrical environment encountered in facilities where electric motors, solenoids and arc welders were present, a significant adversity for normal computer electronics. The PDP-14 was specifically designed to be the first level of factory automation, functioning as a programmable logic controller (PLC), through its ability to communicate with a standard DEC PDP-8 minicomputer. The first unit was delivered in June 1969 and used to control a gear grinding machine. Its design as a "programmable machine controller" was patented in 1973. The PDP-14 was designed to process Boolean equations, usually expressed as “ ladder diagrams” and as such had a programmable read-only program (PROM) memory. Programs were de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data General
Data General Corporation was an early minicomputer firm formed in 1968. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Their first product, 1969's Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer intended to both outperform and cost less than the equivalent from DEC, the 12-bit PDP-8. A basic Nova system cost two-thirds or less than a similar PDP-8 while running faster, offering easy expandability, being significantly smaller, and proving more reliable in the field. Combined with Data General RDOS (DG/RDOS) and programming languages like Data General Business Basic, Novas provided a multi-user platform far ahead of many contemporary systems. A series of updated Nova machines were released through the early 1970s that kept the Nova line at the front of the 16-bit mini world. The Nova was followed by the Data General Eclipse, Eclipse series which offered much larger memory capacity while still being able to run Nova code without modification. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PDP-5
The PDP-5 was Digital Equipment Corporation's first 12-bit computer, introduced in 1963. History An earlier 12-bit computer, named LINC has been described as the first minicomputer and also "the first modern personal computer." It had 2,048 12-bit words, and the first LINC was built in 1962. DEC's founder, Ken Olsen, had worked with both it and a still earlier computer, the 18-bit 64,000-word TX-0, at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. Neither of these machines was mass-produced. Applicability Although the LINC computer was intended primarily for laboratory use, the PDP-5's 12-bit system had a far wider range of use. An example of DEC's "The success of the PDP-5 ... proved that a market for minicomputers did exist" is: * "Data-processing computers have accomplished for mathematicians what the wheel did for transportation" * "Very reliable data was obtained with ..." * "A PDP-5 computer was used very successfully aboard EvergreenU. S. Coast Guard Oceanographic Vessel — ''Ever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
12-bit Computing
Before the widespread adoption of ASCII in the late 1960s, six-bit character codes were common and a 12-bit word, which could hold two characters, was a convenient size. This also made it useful for storing a single decimal digit along with a sign. Possibly the best-known 12-bit CPUs are the PDP-8 and its descendants (such as the Intersil 6100 microprocessor), which were produced in various forms from August 1963 to mid-1990. Many Analog-to-digital converter, analog to digital converters (ADCs) have a 12-bit resolution. Some PIC microcontrollers use a 12-bit instruction word but handle only 8-bit data. 12 binary digits, or 3 nibbles (a 'tribble'), have 4096 (10000 octal, 1000 hexadecimal) distinct combinations. Hence, a microprocessor with 12-bit memory addresses can directly access 4096 Word (computer architecture), words (4 kW) of word-addressable memory. IBM System/360 instruction formats use a 12-bit displacement field which, added to the contents of a base register, can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LINC
The LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer) is a 12-bit, 2048-word transistorized computer. The LINC is considered by some to be the first minicomputer and a forerunner to the personal computer. Originally named the Linc, suggesting the project's origins at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, it was renamed LINC after the project moved from the Lincoln Laboratory. The LINC was designed by Wesley A. Clark and Charles Molnar. The LINC and other "MIT Group" machines were designed at MIT and eventually built by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Spear Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts (later a division of Becton, Dickinson and Company). The LINC sold for more than $40,000 at the time. A typical configuration included an enclosed 6'X20" rack; four boxes holding (1) two tape drives, (2) display scope and input knobs, (3) control console and (4) data terminal interface; and a keyboard. The LINC interfaced well with laboratory experiments. Analog inputs and outputs were part of the basic de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flip-Chip Module
A Flip-Chip module is a component of digital logic systems made by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for its PDP-7, PDP-8, PDP-9, and PDP-10 computers, and related peripherals, beginning on August 24, 1964. Description As used by DEC, the term described a proprietary way to package electronic circuitry which was used for central processing units, peripheral controllers, and many other digital or analog electronic products produced by the company. The first flip-chip modules mated with single-sided 18-contact card edge connectors with contacts on 1/8 inch centers. Circuit boards were 2-7/16 inches wide by 5 inches long, with a handle adding 1/2 inch. Double-height modules with two connectors side by side were 5-3/16 inches wide. Later, when two-sided boards were introduced, upwards-compatible double-sided 36-contact edge connectors were used, but the basic connector and board dimensions remained unchanged. If more component real estate area were required for electronic cir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reduced Instruction Set Computer
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set computer (CISC), a RISC computer might require more instructions (more code) in order to accomplish a task because the individual instructions perform simpler operations. The goal is to offset the need to process more instructions by increasing the speed of each instruction, in particular by implementing an instruction pipeline, which may be simpler to achieve given simpler instructions. The key operational concept of the RISC computer is that each instruction performs only one function (e.g. copy a value from memory to a register). The RISC computer usually has many (16 or 32) high-speed, general-purpose registers with a load–store architecture in which the code for the register-register instructions (for performin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
