16 Aug
2010
16 Aug
'10
5:22 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
I did not even know there *was* a PDP-1, which is not surprising I guess
as it appears only about 50 were made. Various web sites give dates of
1959/60/61 for its production start. I of course found several
interesting web sites about that machine, including
http://pdp-1.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/ which I want to browse through
in more detail. (Why do people insist on using dark gray characters on
a light gray background??? Arrgggghhh!) From the pictures I've seen so
far of the PDP-1, it does appear to be rather large to fit my mental
image of a mini, FWIW (not much). In some ways I'm reminded of the
SDS-910 which I believe was a bit smaller and I sort of always thought
of as a "midi". Whatever that is...
Later,
Charlie C.
My bad! The
combination of poor quality text and my 71 year old eyes
did me in again. :-) My daughter says if you turn it "just so" the Ms.
Pac-Man copyright date does look like 1960, but it is actually 1980.
OK, that makes more sense.
Yep, that makes a lot more sense. In 1960 I
suppose about the only
thing to play a computer game on would have been either a mini or a
mainframe - actually I think it would have had to be a mainframe. Based
on a *very* quick web search, the first PDP-8 shipped in 1964, so if
that was the first mini... Some might say the IBM 1620, introduced in
1959, was a mini but I think that is a stretch.
THe PDP1 was around in the very early 1960s IIRC. And Spacewar, of
course, ran on it. I would class that machine as a mini, but others may not.
-tony