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12-bit
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] |
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] |
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] |
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] |
CDC 6600
The CDC 6600 was the flagship of the 6000 series of mainframe computer systems manufactured by Control Data Corporation. Generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, it outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM 7030 Stretch, by a factor of three."Designed by Seymour Cray, the CDC 6600 was almost three times faster than the next fastest machine of its day, the IBM 7030 Stretch." With performance of up to three megaFLOPS, the CDC 6600 was the world's fastest computer from 1964 to 1969, when it relinquished that status to its successor, the CDC 7600."The 7600 design lasted longer than any other supercomputer design. It had the highest performance of any computer from its introduction in 1969 till the introduction of the Cray 1 in 1976." The first CDC 6600s were delivered in 1965 to Livermore and Los Alamos. They quickly became a must-have system in high-end scientific and mathematical computing, with systems being delivered to Couran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LINC-8
LINC-8 is the name of a minicomputer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation between 1966 and 1969. It combines a LINC computer with a PDP-8 in one cabinet, thus being able to run programs written for either of the two architectures. Architecture The LINC-8 contains one PDP-8 CPU and one LINC CPU, partially emulated by the PDP-8. At any one time, the computer is in either 'LINC mode' or 'PDP-8 mode' - both processors can not run in parallel. Instructions are provided to switch between modes. In the LINC-8, all interrupts are handled by the PDP-8 CPU, and programs that rely on the interrupt architecture of the LINC can not be run. The LINC is a 12-bit ones' complement accumulator machine, whereas the PDP-8, while also a 12-bit accumulator machine, operates in two's complement arithmetic. Memory addressing on the two architectures is also different. On the LINC, the full address space is divided into 1024-word ''segments'', two of which are selected for use at any one time: ... [...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] |
PIC Microcontroller
PIC (usually pronounced as /pɪk/) is a family of microcontrollers made by Microchip Technology, derived from the PIC1640 originally developed by General Instrument's Microelectronics Division. The name PIC initially referred to ''Peripheral Interface Controller'',"MOS DATA 1976", General Instrument 1976 Databook and was subsequently expanded for a short time to include ''Programmable Intelligent Computer'', though the name PIC is no longer used as an acronym for any term. The first parts of the family were available in 1976; by 2013 the company had shipped more than twelve billion individual parts, used in a wide variety of embedded systems. The PIC was originally designed as a peripheral for the General Instrument CP1600, the first commercially available single-chip 16-bit microprocessor. To limit the number of pins required, the CP1600 had a complex highly- multiplexed bus which was difficult to interface with, so in addition to a variety of special-purpose peripherals ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems (SDS), was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, Arthur Rock and Robert Beck, veterans of Packard Bell Corporation and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was the first to employ silicon transistors, and was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design. The company concentrated on larger scientific workload focused machines and sold many machines to NASA during the Space Race. Most machines were both fast and relatively low-priced. The company was sold to Xerox in 1969, but dwindling sales due to the oil crisis of 1973–74 caused Xerox to close the division in 1975 at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. During the Xerox years the company was officially Xerox Data Systems (XDS), whose machines were the Xerox 500 series. History Early machines Throughout the majority of the 1960s the US computer market was dominated by "Snow White", IBM, and the "Seven Dwarves", Burroughs, UN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CDC 160 Series
The CDC 160 series was a series of minicomputers built by Control Data Corporation. The CDC 160 and CDC 160-A were 12-bit minicomputers built from 1960 to 1965; the CDC 160G was a 13-bit minicomputer, with an extended version of the CDC 160-A instruction set, and a compatibility mode in which it did not use the 13th bit. The 160 was designed by Seymour Cray - reportedly over a long three-day weekend. It fit into the desk where its operator sat. The 160 architecture uses ones' complement arithmetic with end-around carry. NCR joint-marketed the 160-A under its own name for several years in the 1960s. Overview A publishing company that purchased a CDC 160-A described it as "a single user machine with no batch processing capability. Programmers and/or users would go to the computer room, sit at the console, load the paper tape bootstrap and start up a program." The CDC 160-A was a simple piece of hardware, and yet provided a variety of features which were scaled-down capabilitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toshiba TLCS-12
TLCS is a prefix applied to microcontrollers made by Toshiba. The product line includes multiple families of CISC and RISC architectures. Individual components generally have a part number beginning with "TMP". E.g. the TMP8048AP is a member of the TLCS-48 family. TLCS-12 The TLCS-12 was a 12-bit microprocessor and central processing unit manufactured by Toshiba. It began development in 1971, and was completed in 1973. It was a 32mm2 MOS integrated circuit chip with about 2,800 silicon gates, fabricated on a 6 μm process with NMOS logic. It was used in the Ford EEC engine control unit system, which began production in 1974 and went into mass production in 1975. The system memory included 512-bit RAM, 2 kb ROM and 2kb EPROM. The TLCS-12A, an improved version of the TLCS-12, was announced in 1975. TLCS-47 family The microcontrollers in the TLCS-47 category are 4-bit systems. These are no longer advertised on the Toshiba website. TLCS-48 family The TLCS-48 family were c ... [...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] |
Ford EEC
The Ford EEC or Electronic Engine Control is a series of ECU (or Engine Control Unit) that was designed and built by Ford Motor Company. The first system, EEC I, used processors and components developed by Toshiba in 1973. It began production in 1974, and went into mass production in 1975. It subsequently went through several model iterations. EEC I and II The EEC I and EEC II modules used a common processor and memory so they can be described together. The microprocessor was a 12-bit central processing unit manufactured by Toshiba, the TLCS-12, which began development in 1971 and was completed in 1973. It was a 32mm² chip with about 2,800 silicon gates, manufactured on a 6 μm process. The system's semiconductor memory included 512-bit RAM, 2 kb ROM and 2kb EPROM. The system began production in 1974, and went into mass production in 1975. The EEC-II controlled air-fuel ratio via Ford's model 7200 Variable Venturi (VV) Carburetor, the last carburetor designed and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
