PDP-1 as minicomputer [was RE: OT - sort of]

The story I heard, whilst working at DEC, was that somebody in engineering took a holiday in the UK. When he came back and was asked what it was like. He talked about mini cars and mini skirts. Somebody else said 'any mini computers? 'No' came the reply 'but we could call our new small system a minicomputer I guess.' Regards ? Rod Smallwood ? ?????ANSI X12 - EANCOM - TRADACOMS ? EDI Consulting Ltd ? Phone? 0118 971 4436 Email?? rodsmallwood at btconnect.com ? -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of William Maddox Sent: 17 August 2010 21:38 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: PDP-1 as minicomputer [was RE: OT - sort of] --- On Tue, 8/17/10, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote: The PDP-8 is probably as good a place as any to demarcate the beginnings of the minicomputer. It was apparently the machine for which the term "minicomputer" was coined. Prior to the PDP-8, however, there was a recognizable class of "small" scientifically-oriented computers with shorter word lengths than their mainframe-class brethren, lower cost, and typically used in small configurations, e.g., SDS 910/920, 3C DDP-24, DEC-PDP1/PDP4, and even smaller serial-memory machines like the Recomp II, Packard-Bell 250, Bendix G-15, and the LGP-30. --Bill