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This site is for people who wish to learn about the PDP-8 minicomputer and for current PDP-8 users to get more information on these machines. The PDP-8 was a important early mini computer in the history of computing and many are still running today performing their original function. The PDP-8 was used for industrial control, controlling experiments, running businesses, word processing, and many other uses.
This site is a work in progress so please to make comments or request what you would like to see. At the bottom of most pages is a link to contact me. I have been concentrating on the ability to run a PDP8 over the web. I think that is working pretty well. If you haven't ever run a PDP8 especially if you haven't used command line operating systems the online documentation may not be sufficient to operate it like a pro but I have made it easy to play some of the games.
The main contents of this site are:
The PDP-8 is a 12 bit single accumulator machine which can address up to 32K 12 bit words. It has 8 basic instructions and the PDP-8/E executes them in 1.2 microsecond for simple instructions to 4 microsecond for complex memory reference instructions. This gives the machine about a .5 MIPS rating. Although the computer is very slow and memory limited by today's standards it was quite capable in its time.
Since the PDP-8 was a more personal machine than the larger more expensive machines, it was popular for playing with and various games were either written for it or ported to it from even earlier machines. More game information.
People also wrote programs to play sound on the pdp8. The pdp8 didn't require a fancy sound card, only an AM radio. Sound information and samples.
These are the major machines I own, click on the picture or links below to find out more about them.
Processors
First PDP-8 (Straight 8)
PDP-8/E and PDP-8/M
PDP-8/I
My cat running my PDP-8/I
VT78 PDP-8
Mass storage
RK05 hard disk drive
DF32/DS32 hard disk drive
RX02 floppy disk drive
TU56 DECtape drive
PC04 paper tape reader/punch
TU10 1/2" tape drive
Other
VR14 display
AX08 Laboratory Peripheral
ASR 33 Teletype
Calcomp 563 Plotter
PT08 Teletype Control
R Series Discrete Transistor Logic
M Series TTL Logic
G Series Special Functions
W Series Interface Boards
A Series Analog Boards
Tektronix 4010-1 Storage Terminal
Shows
Trenton Computer Festival 2005
Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 (2006)
VCF 4.0 (2007)
VCF 5.0 (2008)
VCF 6.0 (2009) (not held in 2010)
VCF 7.0 (2011)
VCF 8.0 (2012)
TCF 2013
VCF 10.0 (2015)
VCF 11 (2016)
Non PDP-8 Stuff
MFM hard drive reader/emulator
RD53 disk drive repair
Serial control of DIRECTV D10-200 receiver for MythTV
FreeRTOS Installation under Linux