I think the answer would be with what kind if interface was available on the cnc machine. Weren’t most of them just serial ? The pdp could be made to interface to anything.
Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 12, 2025, at 18:50, devin davison via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > > It's been a while since i last wrote to the list. I have been reading up a > lot on early cnc systems. > > While recently picking up some left over tech from a shutdown machine shop, > spotted a early cnc system with some kind of minicomputer attached. Looked > to have some kind of tape drive and paper tape punch. It looked like it was > stored under a leaky roof, ball of rust, it looked too far gone to salvage > anything useful. > > Sadly phone was dead at the time and i did not get pictures. > > Reading up on wikipedia, Data General Nova and Dec PDP 11 mini computers > are mentioned as used in early cnc. > > Are there any surviving cnc systems, details, or software for the pdp 11? > > I am interested to know a bit more how the hardware was interfaced. I have > pdp 11/34 systems for example, not sure if the external machine hardware is > directly wired into the unibus with a/d cards, or if some kind of external > hardware controller is driven by the pdp. > > I have not found much info on any software used for this purpose. > > Any accounts of how this worked or other interesting stories / info much > appriciated. > > Thanks, > > Devin D'Amico
