The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) was the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series and was first produced in 1960. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry Programmed Data Processor (abbreviated PDP) was the name of a series of Minicomputers made by Digital Equipment Corporation. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture, at MIT, BBN and elsewhere. See also Hacker In home computing a hacker is a person who heavily modifies the software or hardware of their computer system The PDP-1 was also the original hardware for playing history's first computerized video game, Steve Russell's Spacewar!. A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Steve "Slug" Russell is a programmer and computer scientist most famous for creating Spacewar!, one of the earliest Videogames in 1961 with the Spacewar! is one of the earliest known digital Computer games Steve "Slug" Russell, Martin "Shag" Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen
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Description
It has an 18-bit word and had 4 kilowords as standard main memory (equivalent to 9 kilobytes, or 9,000 bytes), upgradable to 64 kilowords (144 KB). In computer science the term integer is used to refer to a Data type which represents some finite subset of the mathematical Integers These are also known as 943 KILO is a radio station sponsored out of Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colorado. Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix Kilo -, meaning 1000 is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 1024 The magnetic core memory's cycle time was 5 microseconds (corresponding very roughly to a "clock speed" of 200 kilohertz; consequently most arithmetic instructions took 10 microseconds (100,000 operations per second) because they had two memory cycles: one for the instruction, one for the operand data fetch. Magnetic core memory, or ferrite-core memory, is an early form of Random access Computer memory. To help compare Orders of magnitude of different Times this page lists times between 10&minus6 seconds and 10&minus5 seconds (1 micro The clock rate is the fundamental rate in cycles per second (measured in Hertz) at which a Computer performs its most basic operations such as adding two The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. In Mathematics, an operand is one of the inputs (arguments of an Operator. Signed numbers were represented in one's complement. In Mathematics, negative numbers in any base are represented in the usual way by prefixing them with a "&minus" sign
The PDP-1 was built mostly of DEC 1000-series System Building Blocks, using Micro-Alloy and Micro-Alloy-Diffused Transistors. System Building Blocks were Printed circuit boards designed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation. The alloy-junction transistor, or alloy transistor, was an early type of Bipolar junction transistor, developed at General Electric and RCA in The alloy-junction transistor, or alloy transistor, was an early type of Bipolar junction transistor, developed at General Electric and RCA in In Electronics, a transistor is a Semiconductor device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals Rated switching speed: 5 MHz.
Peripherals
The PDP-1 used punched paper tape as its primary storage medium. Punched tape or paper tape is a largely obsolete form of Data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store data Unlike punched card decks, which could be sorted and re-ordered, paper tape was difficult to physically edit. This inspired the creation of text-editing programs such as Expensive Typewriter and TECO. Expensive Typewriter was a text editing program that ran on the DEC PDP-1 computer that had been recently delivered at MIT. TECO (pronounced /tee'koh/ originally an acronym for T ape E ditor and CO rrector, but later T ext E ditor and CO Because it was equipped with online and offline printers that were based on IBM electric typewriter mechanisms, it was capable of what, in eighties terminology, would be called "letter-quality printing" and therefore inspired TJ-2, arguably the first word processor. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology A typewriter is a mechanical or Electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that when pressed cause characters to be printed on a medium A letter-quality printer was a form of computer impact printer that was able to print with the quality typically expected from a business Typewriter such as an Type Justifying Program called TJ-2 was published by Peter Samson in May 1963 and is thought to be the first Page layout program
The console typewriter was the product of a company named Soroban Engineering. It was an IBM Model B Electric typewriter mechanism modified by the addition of switches to detect keypresses and solenoids to activate the typebars. The IBM Electric typewriters were a series of electric Typewriters that IBM manufactured starting in the late 1940s A solenoid is a three-dimensional Coil. In Physics, the term solenoid refers to a loop of wire often wrapped around a Metallic core which A typebar is an 'arm' inside a Typewriter with a character on the end of it It used a traditional typebar mechanism, not the "golfball" IBM Selectric typewriter mechanism which was not introduced until the next year. Case shifting was performed by raising and lowering the massive type basket. It was equipped with a two-color red-and-black ribbon, and the interface allowed color selection. Programs commonly used color coding to distinguish user input from machine responses. The Soroban mechanism was unreliable and prone to jamming, particularly when shifting case or changing ribbon color, and was widely disliked.
Offline devices were typically Friden Flexowriters that had been specially built to operate with the FIO-DEC character coding used by the PDP-1. The Friden Flexowriter, or flexowriter as on its nameplate was a Teleprinter, a heavy duty electric typewriter capable of being driven not only by a human typing Like the console typewriter, these were built around a typing mechanism that was mechanically the same as an IBM Electric typewriter. The IBM Electric typewriters were a series of electric Typewriters that IBM manufactured starting in the late 1940s [1] However, Flexowriters were highly reliable and often used for long unattended printing sessions. Flexowriters had electromechanical paper tape punches and readers which operated synchronously with the typewriter mechanism. Typing was performed about ten characters per second. A typical PDP-1 operating procedure was to output text to punched paper tape using the PDP-1's "high speed" (60 character per second) Teletype model BRPE punch, then carry the tape to a Flexowriter for offline printing.
Computer music
MIT hackers also used the PDP-1 for playing music in four-part harmony, using some special hardware--four flip-flops directly controlled by the processor (filtered with simple RC filters). In Digital circuits a flip-flop is a term referring to an Electronic circuit (a Bistable Multivibrator) that has two stable states and thereby Music was prepared via Peter Samson's Harmony Compiler, a sophisticated text-based program with some features specifically oriented toward the efficient coding of baroque music. Peter R Samson (born 1941 in Fitchburg Massachusetts) is an American Computer scientist, best known for creating pioneering computer Software Harmony Compiler was written by Peter Samson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. Several hours of music were prepared for it, including Bach fugues, all of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Christmas carols, and numerous popular songs. In Music, a fugue (ˈfjuːg is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred The Serenade No 13 for strings in G major, K 525 more commonly known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik ("a small serenade" -- rendered more literally
Current status
Only three PDP-1 computers are still known to exist, and all three are in the collection of the Computer History Museum. The Computer History Museum is a Museum established in 1996 in Mountain View California, when The Computer Museum (TCM in Boston) One was a prototype, and the other two are production PDP-1C machines. One of the latter, serial number 55 (the last PDP-1 made) has been restored to working order, is on exhibit, and is demonstrated two Saturdays every month. The demonstrations include:
- the game Spacewar!
- graphics demonstrations such as Snowflake
- playing music
The restoration is described on a special web page of the Computer History Museum. Spacewar! is one of the earliest known digital Computer games Steve "Slug" Russell, Martin "Shag" Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen
Simulations of the PDP-1 exist in SIMH and MESS, and paper tapes of the software exist in the bitsavers. SIMH is a highly portable multi-system Emulator which runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD MESS ( Multi Emulator Super System) is an Emulator for many game consoles and computer systems based on the MAME core org archives.
BBN was DEC's first customer for the PDP-1. [2] MIT's PDP-1, donated by DEC in 1961, occupied the room next door to the TX-0 which was on indefinite loan from Lincoln Laboratory. The TX-0, for T ransistorized E' x' perimental computer zero but affectionately referred to as tixo (pronounced "tix oh" MIT Lincoln Laboratory, also known as Lincoln Lab, is a Federally funded research and development center managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
At the Computer History Museum TX-0 alumni reunion in 1984, Gordon Bell said DEC's products developed directly from the TX-2, the successor to the TX-0 which had been developed at what Bell thought was a bargain price at the time, about USD $3 million. The Computer History Museum is a Museum established in 1996 in Mountain View California, when The Computer Museum (TCM in Boston) Gordon Bell (disambiguation C Gordon Bell (born August 19, 1934) is a Computer engineer and manager This article is about the Computer For the Texas district see United States House of Representatives Texas District 2 The MIT Lincoln Laboratory At the same meeting, Jack Dennis said Ben Gurley's design for the PDP-1 was influenced by his work on the TX-0 display. Jack Bonnell Dennis is an American Electrical engineer and a Computer scientist. [3]
At the museum's PDP-1 restoration celebration in May 2006, Alan Kotok said his Mac G4 laptop was 10,000 times faster, came with 100,000 times the RAM and 500,000 times the storage, was 1/2000 the size, and cost 1/100 as much. This article is about Alan Kotok who was associate chair of W3C. [4]
See also
Notes
- ^ reminiscence by Bob Mast: "The Flexowriter was first manufactured by IBM, during WWII, to be used as an automatic letter writer. Spacewar! is one of the earliest known digital Computer games Steve "Slug" Russell, Martin "Shag" Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen This article presents a detailed timeline of events in the history of Computing. The history of computer hardware encompasses the hardware, its architecture, and its impact on software. The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of Computer science that emerged in the twentieth century After the war several IBMers bought the rights and formed Commercial Controls, Inc. They manufactured same in the old IBM Electric typewriter building in Rochester NY. In the late fifties, Friden bought Commercial Controls. "
- ^ The Mouse That Roared: PDP-1 Celebration Event Lecture 05.15.06 (Google link), Computer History Museum, 15 May 2006
- ^ The Computer Museum Report, Volume 8: TX-0 alumni reunion, Spring 1984, Ed Thelen Web site (accessed June 18, 2006)
- ^ Kotok, Alan. (2006). The Mouse That Roared: PDP-1 Celebration Event Lecture 05.15.06 [Google Video]. Google Video is a free video sharing website and also a video service from Google that allows anyone to upload Video Clips to Google's web Mountain View, CA, USA: Computer History Museum. Retrieved on 2006-07-01. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. . Kotok begins at 0:53:50.
External links
- Restoring the DEC PDP-1 Computer Exhibit — The Computer History Museum's restoration project
- CHM Archives – The Computer History Museum's Moving Image resources on their PDP-1 and the restoration project. The Computer History Museum is a Museum established in 1996 in Mountain View California, when The Computer Museum (TCM in Boston) Includes some music files.
- DEC PDP-1 information – Website by greeng3@rpi. edu, including DEC's 1963 PROGRAMMED DATA PROCESSOR-1 HANDBOOK)
- bitsavers.org PDP-1 directory – Scanned documentation incl PDP-1 handbook, maintenance manual, price list, diagnostic documentation, etc.
- PDP-1 Music – Listen to MP3s of music created on the PDP-1
- The Dot Eaters entry on the PDP-1 and its use in the development of the first videogame, Spacewar!
- Story of the development of the PDP-1 from the original DEC documentation, including letters of delivery, price sheets, and photos.
- PDP-1 emulator in Java running Spacewar! code.
- DEC PDP-1 music (video on YouTube)
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