PDP-6
| 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 |
| Instruction 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 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.
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
- PDP-6 - Bitsavers material on PDP-6 (fairly extensive)
- Programmed Data Processor-6 Handbook (F-65)
- PDP-6 Arithmetic Processor 166 Instruction Manual - Volume 2 (F-67(166)) - contains the Engineering Drawings for the CPU
- PDP-6 and -10
- PDP-6 prehistory
- Notes on the PDP-6 - front panel description
- Gallery - extensive collection of images
- PDP-6
- The DEC PDP-6 Time-Sharing Computer
- DEC PDP-6 Serial numbers
- Simulator based on processor schematics
- A computer that grows with you - Business Week article on the PDP-6
- Photo timeline of the MIT AI lab PDP-6
