--- Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >... wouldn't turn down a PDP8/e mind you.
>
> Why the 8/e in particular? The PDP8 is a very elegant machine, so I can
> understand wanting to own one (I have a couple...) but I can't see why
> you'd pick that one model. It is the most common one, I guess...
In my case the -8/e was the _last_ one I got. I'm personally fond of the
pre-OMNIBUS machines (-8/L and -8/i) for the simple matter that they are made
of wads of TTL and assembled in such a fashion that it's entirely possible to
envision how this gate connects to that flop, etc, and trace the operation of
the ALU, etc. The appeal of the OMNIBUS machines is that it's easier to hang
modern devices off of them.
Of course, it probably comes down to the question of "what did you encounter
first". In my case, it was an -8/L followed by an -8/i followed by an -8/a.
As for most common, around here, I ran across as many -8/a's as all other
kinds put together (during the 1980's when such things were to be found in
the wild at all). I wish I could have rescued the two -8/m's that were
at OSU analyzing horse urine for the state racing commission. They had a
rack of Diablo RK03's on a switch with one CPU attached to a mass spectrometer
and the other CPU attached to a 9-track and a Tektronics printing terminal.
It was four racks of CPUs, disks and such. The last time I saw them was 1987,
give or take a year. It's where I cut my teeth on RTS-8 (during the
maintenance
time on the mass spec).
-ethan
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Received on Tue May 18 1999 - 15:39:50 BST