29 Mar
2010
29 Mar
'10
12:52 p.m.
On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
We're still in our first steps, and haven't
made a lot of use of vintage systems in the classroom (although I do like to bring along
my PDP-8/f, just to demonstrate what a desktop computer looked like in 1970).
If you have a moving van, you could bring a DataSystem 310 (PDP-8/a
w/RX02) to show that in 1978, a desktop computer was so-called because
it came with its own desk. ;-)
The Straight-8, the -8/S, the -8/L and the -8/e all had "desktop"
configurations as well as rackable configurations (i.e. - factory-made
desktop covers (black metal except for the Straight-8, which was
smoked plexi), but I think the other models of PDP-8 only had rackable
packages (not that you couldn't leave a PDP-8 out on a desk, but in
terms of aesthetics, vents, mounting ears, etc., they weren't "desk
pretty").
Still - the -8/f is more portable than an -8/e and does make the point
that I imagine you are trying to make (though anything more than the
CPU enclosure and a TTY starts to stretch the definition of "desktop",
especially if you start stacking rackable boxes for external disk or
DECtape or papertape - those weren't in desktop enclosures in 1970
AFAIK).
-ethan