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Richard Merrill (computer Scientist)
Richard Merrill was a Digital Equipment Corporation employee who invented the FOCAL programming language and programmed the first two interpreters for the language in 1968 and 1969, for the PDP-8. He also developed later versions of the interpreter for the PDP-7 and PDP-9, later ported it to the PDP-11 The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of a .... Merrill also designed and programmed the EDIT-8 text editor (using paper-tape).Who's Who
Rick Merrill is an alumnus of Episcopal High School, a preparatory school in Alexandria, VA a ...
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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 ...
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FOCAL (programming Language)
FOCAL (acronym for Formulating On-line Calculations in Algebraic Language, or FOrmula CALculator) is an interactive Interpreter (computing), interpreted programming language based on JOSS and mostly used on Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Programmed Data Processor, PDP series machines. JOSS was designed to be a simple language to allow programs to be easily written by non-programmers. FOCAL is very similar to JOSS in the commands it supports and the general Syntax (programming languages), syntax of the language. It differs in that many of JOSS' advanced features like Range (computer programming), ranges and user-defined functions were removed to simplify the parser and allow the system to run in less memory. Some of the reserved words (keywords) were renamed so that they all start with a unique first letter. This allows users to type in programs using one-character statements, further reducing memory needs. This was an important consideration on the PDP-8, which was often limi ...
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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 ...
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PDP-7
The PDP-7 is an 18-bit computing, 18-bit minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation as part of the Programmed Data Processor, PDP series. Introduced in 1964, shipped since 1965, it was the first to use their Flip-Chip module, Flip-Chip technology. With a cost of , it was cheap but powerful by the standards of the time. The PDP-7 is the third of Digital's 18-bit machines, with essentially the same instruction set architecture as the PDP-4 and the PDP-9. Hardware The PDP-7 was the first wire wrap, wire-wrapped PDP computer. The computer has a memory cycle time of and an add time of . Input/output (I/O) includes a keyboard, printer, punched tape and dual transport DECtape drives (type 555). The standard Magnetic-core memory, core memory capacity is but expandable up to The PDP-7 weighs about . Software DECsys, the first operating system for DEC's 18-bit computer family (and DEC's first operating system for a computer smaller than its 36-bit timesharing systems) ...
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PDP-9
The PDP-9, the fourth of the five 18-bit minicomputers produced by Digital Equipment Corporation, was introduced in 1966. A total of 445 PDP-9 systems were produced, of which 40 were the compact, low-cost PDP-9/L units.. History The 18-bit PDP systems preceding the PDP-9 are the PDP-1, PDP-4 and PDP-7. Its successor is the PDP-15. Hardware The PDP-9, which is "two metres wide and about 75cm deep," is approximately twice the speed of the PDP-7. It was built using discrete transistors, and has an optional integrated vector graphics terminal. The PDP-9 has a memory cycle time of 1 microsecond, and weighs about . The PDP-9/L has a memory cycle time of 1.5 microseconds, and weighs about . It is DEC's first microprogrammed machine. A typical configuration included: * 300 cps paper tape reader * 50 cps paper tape punch * DECtape for operating system and user files * 10 cps console teleprinter, Model 33 KSR Among the improvements of the PDP-9 over its PDP-7 predecessor are: ...
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PDP-11
The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer. The PDP–11 included a number of innovative features in its instruction set and additional general-purpose registers that made it easier to program than earlier models in the PDP series. Further, the innovative Unibus system allowed external devices to be more easily interfaced to the system using direct memory access, opening the system to a wide variety of peripherals. The PDP–11 replaced the PDP–8 in many real-time computing applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years. The ease of programming of the PDP–11 made it popular for general-pur ...
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Year Of Birth Missing (living People)
A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) are more exact. The modern calendar year, as reckoned according to the Gregorian calendar, approximates the tropical year by using a system of leap years. The term 'year' is also used to indicate other periods of roughly similar duration, such as the lunar year (a roughly 354-day cycle of twelve of the Moon's phasessee lunar calendar), as well as periods loosely associated with the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year, the academic year, etc. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by changes in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons a ...
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American Computer Scientists
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams S ...
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Digital Equipment Corporation People
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software company Computing and technology Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital images *** Digital versus film photography **Digital computer, a computer that handles information represented by discrete values **Digital recording, information recorded using a digital signal Socioeconomic phenomena *Digital culture, the anthropological dimension of the digital social changes *Digital divide, a form of economic and social inequality in access to or use of information and communication technologies *Digital economy, an economy based on computing and telecommunications resources *Digital rights, legal rights of access to computers or the Internet Ot ...
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Programming Language Designers
Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program management, the process of managing several related projects * Time management * Program, a part of planning Arts and entertainment Audio * Programming (music), generating music electronically * Radio programming, act of scheduling content for radio * Synthesizer programmer, a person who develops the instrumentation for a piece of music Video or television * Broadcast programming, scheduling content for television * Program music, a type of art music that attempts to render musically an extra-musical narrative * Synthesizer patch or program, a synthesizer setting stored in memory * "Program", an instrumental song by Linkin Park from '' LP Underground Eleven'' * Programmer, a film on the lower half of a double feature bill; see B-movie S ...
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