PDP 14

The PDP-14 was not a conventional computer... it was what we call today a PLC (programmable logic controller). Very adaptable to ladder logic and a bit more. DEC was pretty swift in how they allowed the PDP-14 to be configured via a real computer (a -11 or -8). It wasn't the GUI of PLC configuration today or even of the 80's, but it was a good start. The overall model of PLC configured or monitored by a computer still holds true today, I think that DEC could have really taken this idea and run with it but the overlap between industrial control and computers even today is less than thorough. The computer geeks don't understand the industrial control and process engineers for the most part (thus the common misuse of Windows PC's where a PLC could do the job far better and without point-and-drool.) IMHO if you are interested in PDP-14 you must also be interested in early Modicon PLC's, which were far more common, predate the PDP-14, used core memory like the PDP-14, and which the PDP-14 was pretty much a clone of. I think Modicon was also a Massachusets company like DEC. I never used a PDP-14 but I always understood them to be very much like the core-based Modicons I used. Tim.