17 Aug
2010
17 Aug
'10
8:37 p.m.
--- On Tue, 8/17/10, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote:
Arguing that anything before the PDP-8 was a
"minicomputer"
is revisionism.
IMAO.
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