Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ncar!husc6!bbn!bbn.com!cosell
From: cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: LINC
Keywords: Linc Eight, LINCtape, DECtape
Message-ID: <29289@bbn.COM>
Date: 2 Sep 88 15:45:54 GMT
References: <677@buengc.BU.EDU> <509@aiva.ed.ac.uk> <2639@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <824@sceard.UUCP> <686@cgch.UUCP>
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Reply-To: cosell@BBN.COM (Bernie Cosell)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 61

Sorry to bother you all with this, gang, but the my problem should be
obvious.   /bernie\

Date:     Fri, 2 Sep 88 11:33:30 EDT
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To: wgtr@cgchd4.UUCP
Subject: Re: LINC
Newsgroups: comp.misc
In-Reply-To: <686@cgch.UUCP>
References: <677@buengc.BU.EDU> <509@aiva.ed.ac.uk> <2639@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <824@sceard.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Bcc: 
Date: Fri, 02 Sep 88 11:32:03 -0400
From: cosell@wilma

I'm not sure what you already know, or quite what it is you want to learn,
but...

PDP-1   the first of DEC's "family".  The scion of the long an honorable
	"18 bit" computers.

The next computer in this line was the PDP-4: it wasn't really a descendent
of the -1: the pdp1 was a _quite_ limited architecture (and in particular,
they hadn't "invented" index registers yet, and so the -1 became "old" pretty
quick!).  The pdp-4 spawned the pdp-7 and pdp-9, all 18-bit'ers.

As a separate thread, DEC built what was probably the first asynchronous
computer: the PDP-6.  The "flow chart" for figuring out how long an
instruction took to execute spread across two pages in the manual (two pages
of pretty small bubbles!).  The pdp-6 grew into the pdp-10 and later
decsystem20.  All 36-bit word machines (still clinging to six-bit bytes,
spawned by the original FIODEC codes used by the Soroban
auotmatic-typewriters used as consoles.

There is the pdp-8 line, I _think_ the next entry in that was the pdp-15.

And there is the (in)famous pdp-11.

As I survey the list, I see that 2,3,5 are missing among the low ones: I
vaugely recall hearing about a pdp5, but I think that there never were 2's or
3's.  I lost track (and interest) when the pdp11 appeared, so I have no clue
about 12, 13,.... (although I'm _sure_ no marketing person would let them try
to sell a "pdp13"! :-).

Try checking out "Computer Engineering, A DEC view of hardware systems
design" by Bell, Mudge & McNamara (digital press...surprise! :-))

   __
  /  )                              Bernie Cosell
 /--<  _  __  __   o _              BBN Sys & Tech, Cambridge, MA 02238
/___/_(<_/ (_/) )_(_(<_             cosell@bbn.com