Thank you Allison! I was trying to get my fingers to work and kept having an attack of gasp how could someone not know? Well said, hope you are doing GREAT! bob smith, 8/e engineering, 8 engineering, DecComm11, LCG 2080
On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 12:58 PM allison via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 12/21/2018 10:10 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote: > > Does anyone know where the 'Straight 8' name for the first PDP-8 model came > > from? Obviously, it's probably a play on the car engine configuration name, > > but how did the connection get made? Thanks - I hope! > > > > Noel > > > ssrsly? > > It was the first PDP-8 no model letter like S, L, I, E, F, M, or A. It > was also the direct decedent of the > PDP-5 (1963 and transistors) which was the first 12bit machine and > largely compatible with later > family of 8 machines. The PDP-8 series started in 1965 and grew from there. > > When looking at the history LINK and LINK-8, PDP12, and later LAB-8 are > also related and interleaved > as laboratory machines. > > Simple answer, it was DECs first blockbuster machine that was > manufactured in high volume and was > very low cost in terms of the day. > > The transistor to IC change... The 8I: > Also commenting on ICs the 1970 Omnibus 8 (PDP-E) was the largely MSI > IC based machine (M series). > The 8I/8L was the first TTL machine prior to that the systems were > transistor. The march to higher density > ICs was well underway. > > FYI my first contact was the DEC PDP8I fall of 1969 as part of the > BOCES LIRICS timeshare system > (NY, LI, Sufflok county schools). The following year (fall 1970) it was > integrated into and part of the larger > DEC System 10 timeshare system running TOPS-10. > > None of this is secret or difficult to find. Doug Jones has a great > archive. http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/ > > > Allison
