<I am a relatively new collector and new to the list, so this may be a
<naive question - please excuse. I would like to get my hands on
<either/or/and a PDP-8/?, PDP-11/?. Where does one look - keep an eye on?
Ok,
For smaller systems the PDP-11 Q-bus based ones are resonable. They are
easy to deal with power wise and space wise. Most of the PDP-11 Unibus
systems tend to be multiple 4-6ft racks for reasonably operable systems.
Smallest PDP-11 systems are the MicroPDP-11s <one deskside box> and the
largest <PDP-11/70> will easily be 3-5 72"tall racks plus disk drives the
size of washing machines and require special power(220V 3phase). This
line is very varied! Moving the big ones is a non trivial task.
In the common but non bussed PDP-11s there are the PRO350 , PRO380
and PDT-11/series. While some argue they are not "real PDP-11s"
they are certaily the same instuction set and related members worthy of
collection. Size PCish, no special power. You should be able to find
them free to inexpensive.
PDP-8 series, the 8e/f/m are the easiest to find and work with. A full
system can be one box (11Hx21Wx28D) is you use a PC to simulate, or better
yet obtain, a teletype so paper tape software can be run. Systems with
disks will need at least a small rack in the 30-72" height. Some of the
older 8I, 8(no designator) can easily be two to four racks and tax the
power budget of standard house wiring and possible the floor <weight!>.
There are PDP-8 based systems that are quite small and interesting in the
own right. DECmate I/II/III series are aimed at word processing
but do use a common cpu (cmos chip that is PDP-8 instructions set). They
will run a variation of OS8 <os/78 or os/278). These are easy to find,
common and should be very inexpensize to free. Size, desktop PCish.
I would suggest researching what you want and what you can store (and power)
first so you know what your looking for and at. There are a lot of web
sites with pictures and descriptions. You're referenceing a lot of
postential machines and narrowoing what you might like is not a bad idea.
Allison
Received on Sun Sep 26 1999 - 13:54:13 BST