PDP8a popped up for auction

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Mon Jul 23 12:59:35 2001

On July 23, Lawrence LeMay wrote:
> > As annoying as "*RARE*" has become on eBay, I've seen exactly ONE of
> > those front panels...and I've been actively hacking pdp8s for nearly
> > twenty years. YMMV.
>
> Whereas I've only seen 2 8a's in my life, and both had those panels, plus
> they are available if you're willing to buy em from resellers...

  They both did? Wow. I've only seen a couple of 8/a's, and they've
all had the BA11SA-style "three switches" panel.

  An interesting thing...That front panel is very similar to that of the
pdp11/34 KY11-LB panel. The KY11-LB is controlled by an i8008
processor. I wonder if the 8/a programmer's panel uses an i8008 as
well. Also, the pdp11/60 has a similar front panel. Anyone know? I
had a pdp11/60 once, but never dug into the panel.

  Which brings up a neat memory...a friend and I sold that pdp11/60
and a bunch of VT220s to Pennington Prep School in Pennington, NJ many
years ago as a timesharing system for their CompSci classes. It ran
RSTS/E v9.4 on a pair of RL02s. That was a nice system...I liked it a
lot.

  Yeah, good point about the 8/a's being available from resellers...I
wouldn't want to see those prices, though.

    -Dave McGuire
Received on Mon Jul 23 2001 - 12:59:35 BST