PDP-7
Encyclopedia
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
PDP-7 is a minicomputer
Minicomputer
A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems...
produced by Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
. Introduced in 1965, it was the first to use their Flip-Chip
Flip Chip (trademark)
Flip-Chip modules were used in the DEC PDP-7 , PDP-8, PDP-9 and PDP-10, beginning on August 24, 1964. The trademark "Flip-Chip"' was filed on August 27, 1964...
technology. With a cost of only $72,000 USD, it was cheap but powerful by the standards of the time. The PDP-7 was the third of Digital's 18-bit machines, with essentially the same instruction set architecture as the PDP-4
Programmed Data Processor
Programmed Data Processor was the name of a series of minicomputers made by Digital Equipment Corporation. The name 'PDP' intentionally avoided the use of the term 'computer' because, at the time of the first PDPs, computers had a reputation of being large, complicated, and expensive machines, and...
and the PDP-9
Programmed Data Processor
Programmed Data Processor was the name of a series of minicomputers made by Digital Equipment Corporation. The name 'PDP' intentionally avoided the use of the term 'computer' because, at the time of the first PDPs, computers had a reputation of being large, complicated, and expensive machines, and...
. It was the first wire-wrapped
Wire wrap
Wire wrap is a technology used to assemble electronics. It is a method to construct circuit boards without having to make a printed circuit board. Wires can be wrapped by hand or by machine, and can be hand-modified afterwards. It was popular for large-scale manufacturing in the 60s and early 70s,...
PDP.
In 1969, Ken Thompson wrote the first UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
system in assembly language on a PDP-7, then named Unics as a pun on Multics
Multics
Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
, as the operating system for Space Travel
Space Travel (video game)
Space Travel was an early computer game that simulated travel in the solar system. It was the development of this game that spurred the development of the Unix operating system. It is sometimes claimed that the unrelated game Spacewar! had led to the development of Unix...
, a game which required graphics to depict the motion of the planets. A PDP-7 was also the development system used during the development of MUMPS
MUMPS
MUMPS , or alternatively M, is a programming language created in the late 1960s, originally for use in the healthcare industry. It was designed for the production of multi-user database-driven applications...
at MGH
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
a few years earlier.
There are a few remaining PDP-7 systems still in operable condition, along with one under restoration in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway. The PDP-7 previously located at the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
in its Nuclear Physics laboratory is now at the Living Computer Museum
Living Computer Museum
The is a museum that primarily showcases vintage computers which provide an interactive session, either through time sharing operating systems or single-user interfaces...
in Seattle, Washington and is almost completely restored to running condition after being disassembled for transport. Another machine is known to be in the collection of Max Burnet near Sydney, Australia.
External links
- http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/pdp7.html "The famous PDP-7 comes to the rescue" (Bell Labs' Unix history).
- http://research.microsoft.com/~gbell/Digital/timeline/1964-3.htm PDP-7 entry from Year 1964 in the DIGITAL Computing Timeline.
- http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~toresbe/dec PDP-7 restoration project located in Oslo, Norway.
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/PDP-7 general information for the computer system.
- http://www.soemtron.org/pdp7.html information about the PDP-7 and PDP-7/A including some manuals and a customer list covering 99 of the possible 120 systems shipped.
- http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/Activities/talks/20110113-Lefevre.php University of Oregon's PDP-7 moves to the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, Washington.