Difference between revisions of "PDP-6"

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| year first shipped = June, 1964
 
| year first shipped = June, 1964
 
| year discontinued = 1965
 
| year discontinued = 1965
| form factor = [[mainframe]]
+
| form factor = small [[mainframe]]
 
| word size = 36 bits
 
| word size = 36 bits
 
| physical address = 18 bits
 
| physical address = 18 bits

Revision as of 23:14, 5 August 2017


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
Predecessor(s): None
Successor(s): KA10
Price: US$120K (CPU), US$300K (system)


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

The PDP-6 was effectively the first model of the PDP-10; they are (mostly) binary-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).

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).

External links