Difference between revisions of "PDP-6"

From Computer History Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
(Have Monitor link to TOPS-10 article.)
m (External links: +Business Week article on the PDP-6)
Line 38: Line 38:
 
** [http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp6/F-65_PDP-6_Handbook_Aug64.pdf Programmed Data Processor-6 Handbook] (F-65)
 
** [http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp6/F-65_PDP-6_Handbook_Aug64.pdf Programmed Data Processor-6 Handbook] (F-65)
 
** [http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp6/F-67_166instrManVol2_Sep65.pdf PDP-6 Arithmetic Processor 166 Instruction Manual - Volume 2] (F-67(166)) - contains the Engineering Drawings for the CPU
 
** [http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp6/F-67_166instrManVol2_Sep65.pdf PDP-6 Arithmetic Processor 166 Instruction Manual - Volume 2] (F-67(166)) - contains the Engineering Drawings for the CPU
 +
* [https://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/Digital/A_Computer_that_grows_BusWeek_640314.pdf A computer that grows with you] - Business Week article on the PDP-6
 
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/pdp-6.html PDP-6]
 
* [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/pdp-6.html PDP-6]
 
* [http://www.decodesystems.com/pdp6.html The DEC PDP-6 Time-Sharing Computer]
 
* [http://www.decodesystems.com/pdp6.html The DEC PDP-6 Time-Sharing Computer]

Revision as of 22:57, 6 August 2022


PDP-6
Manufacturer: Digital Equipment Corporation
Architecture: PDP-10
Year Design Started: March, 1963
Year First Shipped: June, 1964
Year Discontinued: 1965
Form Factor: small mainframe
Word Size: 36 bits
Logic Type: germanium and silicon transistors
Design Type: asynchronous with hardware subroutines
Clock Speed: 4 μsec (approximately - different instructions take different amounts of time, the CPU is not synchronous)
Memory Speed: 5 μsec (inital), 2 μsec (later)
Physical Address Size: 18 bits
Virtual Address Size: 18 bits
Memory Management: single base and bounds register pair
Operating System: Monitor, ITS, WAITS, JOSS II
Predecessor(s): None
Successor(s): KA10
Price: US$120K (CPU), US$300K (system)


The MIT AI lab PDP-6 console

The PDP-6 was effectively the first model of the PDP-10; they are (mostly) object code compatible. It was built out of System Modules, DEC's predecessor to the FLIP CHIP module series (out of which the first PDP-10, the KA10, was built).

It featured 36-bit words, at the time effectively the standard for machines used for scientific computing. In a period when almost all programming was done in assembly language, it used those long words to provide a powerful and regular instruction set.

A System Module used in a PDP-6; this example has had its transistors salvaged from it

The machine was not a success, commercially (only 23 were sold), in part because the hardware was unreliable - largely because of one type of large System Module, which contained one bit of the entire ALU section of the CPU - a 'bridge too far' at the then-current state of printed circuit board technology.

According to Tim Anderson, the Project MAC group Dynamic Modeling/Computer Graphics took delivery of the very last PDP-6 from a previous owner. They adopted the AI Lab's ITS operating system, but shortly after moved onto a PDP-10.

External links