IMO a lot hinges on understanding the differences between the KA11 and KH11-A processors.
As was sometimes the case, DEC "marketing" models can hide differences under the
hood over time.
...
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at
classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of
Christian Corti
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 4:32 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?
On Mon, 22 Feb 2016, Paul Birkel wrote:
My PDP-11 is labeled as "S-386" and
dated 9/23/70, which I guess
makes it fairly early in the production run (but I do wonder what
the initial manufacturing rate was given the relative riskiness of
this new architecture). Anyone have S# and dates for "plain 11" vs.
11/20-marked for comparison?
Our PDP-11 is labeled as "S-308", the date is 9/16/70. And I think
they called it PDP11-20 from the beginning, as the model number above
the serial number says "M11-20"
Christian
I have an original 1969 PDP 11 brochure. In it there are two PDP 11 model configurations
to choose from; the 10 and the 20. For me at least this throws into question the whole
"...the 10 first came out with the 5 in1972..." story everyone repeats over and
over, unless one must have a "10" printed on the console in order to accept a
computer model's existence. DEC must not have sold many original 10 models, and/or
everyone who has a 10 does not realize that's what they have. But, facts are facts
and the brochure and price guide I have is what it is. Hoping some here will check for
themselves and consider it misleading at least to simply call the original PDP-11 a
"pdp 11/20 without the nameplate". In short, the original bare-bones pdp11 was
the pdp-11 10, the fully-equipped version was the pdp-11 20.
Why DEC temporarily dropped it's pdp-11 10 model from the product line and from newer
price sheets I can't say. Certainly the "10" was gone when DEC rebranded
their front nameplates to read "pdp 11/20". I believe the 1969 brochure is on
bitsavers, or I think my website has a copy you can download.
Bill Degnan
twitter: billdeg
vintagecomputer.net