27 Feb
2005
27 Feb
'05
12:16 a.m.
>>
>> Probably one of the last people alive to use the PDP-8 in a
>> commercial production setting....
I was still supporting (and developing new code for) PDP-8' based
Test equipment for an electronics firm until the very late 1980's
['88 or '89].
Starting in '85 we had begun migration to one of 3 alternatives:
1) PDP-11 Based
2) PC Based
3) Intersil (6120?) Clone machines [protected other hardware investments
that were too difficult/expensive to re-engineer to the other platforms.
The last "true" PDP-8 came off the line just before 1990 rolled around, but
the Intersil (actually it was a PCM-12 model!) machines were still in some
use when I left the firm in 1992.
Of course there are STILL PDP-8's in "commercial" use, but they seem to
finally be running down.