Hi folks,
So who's taking the populated pdp8/m?
Since Peter Turnbull is taking the pdp8/e and a pdp8/m is only an
OEM pdp8/e with less slots; I'm wondering if the pdp8/m should go
to another University.
I'd be willing to drag it to Manchester - would it fit in my fourtwo ;-)
?
In my case I'd try and see if Manchester University or MOSI would be
interested.
Man Uni would be a good target - since they created the first stored-
program computer in 1948 and still has luminaries such as Steve Furber
(who headed the team who developed the ARM). Moreover, I remember when
I was there, there was an ORIGINAL pdp-8 standing in a corner on the
first floor of the Kilburn building.
MOSI would be a good target - since they house the reproduction of the
the 1948 Baby.
The second question of course is what to do with all these machines.
I know Peter wants to put a demo OS on it and some demo software
(CHKMOV ? / pdp8- music?). But is this the best way forward? I've
seen some of the Bletchley Park videos, but frankly most of them look
quite boring; certainly not as good as the YouTube series on
programming the pdp11 where the student travels back in time to see
how hard it was to develop and debug in the early 70s.
How do you get students interested for more than 5 minutes in machines
that 'can't' do anything ;-) ? How do you pass on and formalise the
knowledge needed to maintain and preserve these relics?
It seems to me that using the machines themselves (or replicas) would be
a way forward. Museum or University courses where a team of students
is assembled to recreate or restore an ancient mini and program their
own demos. A 3 hour evening class once a week with a team of 10 would
provide 3*10*40 = 1200 man-hours of experience....
-cheers from julz @P