First computer with real-time clock?

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Fri Jul 30 08:26:00 2004

>>>>> "Tony" == Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk> writes:

>> The 1973 pdp-11 processor handbook indicates that the PDP-11/05
>> and PDP-11/10 had a line frequency clock and the PDP-11/35 and
>> PDP-11/40 are pre-wired to accept a KW11-I. So they could track
>> the passage of time, but not while the power was off.
>>
>> I doubt that any PDP-8 came with any such option

 Tony> Line time interupts certainly existed for the PDP8/e, but
 Tony> that's about the same vintage. There was also one for the P850,
 Tony> which is a couple of years earlier (1970, I think).

While it is possible to build batch computers that have no sense of
time, it would be really hard to imagine a timesharing system without
that, for how else would you do timeslice scheduling?

Timesharing has been implemented on the PDP-1. And isn't the original
Dartmouth timesharing system even older?

          paul
Received on Fri Jul 30 2004 - 08:26:00 BST