DEC PDP-8/E wanted

[Thomas Moss]

On Nov 22, 2020, at 04:01 PM, Chris Hanson via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>Does anyone know of anyone building them for sale? I dont need a real
>PDP-8 in my life with all my other hardware (more Q-bus PDP-11, on the
>other hand) but Id love having *a* PDP-8, especially one that doesnt
>require enormous amounts of power.

Hi Chris,

There's a few options in this regard, in increasing degrees of
"realness" (and cost!) depending on how you define it.

1) The PiDP-8 by Oscar Vermeulen - Raspberry Pi based 8/i replica
running SIMH in a miniaturised case.
https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-8

2) The SBC6120 - Originally by Spare Time Gizmos, but now re-released by
the RetroBrew Computers community. This is a 6120 based PDP-8/e replica,
with optional front panel. (the panel doesn't appear to be made
"officially" anymore, as the design files are missing, but a Russian
company appears to have copied it. (I have the Russian version but have
yet to assemble it.)
https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=boards:sbc:sbc6120-rbc-edition:start
http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardware/SBC6120-2.htm
https://chipkin.ru/product/pechatnye-platy-dec-pdp-8-e/

3) The LD12 / LD20 by Franklin Prosser and David E. Winkel -
This is a TTL based clone of a PDP-8/i, originally devised as part of an
exercise in the book "The Art of Digital Design An Introduction to Top
Down Design" in the early 80s. A few people on vcfed.org have built
their own based on these designs, and daver2 has made a run of PCBs
(wirewrapped!)
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?74125

4) Vince Slyngstad of so-much-stuff.com has scanned many PDP-8 boards
and re-created them in Eagle CAD software. I know he's been working on
re-creating the 8/e CPU recently but AFAIK it's not finished yet.
There are however many OMNIBUS peripheral cards, and a board that
combines 32KW of battery backed RAM with a boot ROM.

Roland Huisman has also re-created the RX8E floppy controller, and has
made an RX02 emulator to go with it, so if you lack an RX01/2 drive you
can still have something to boot off. Kyle Owen has also created a neat
bit of software that allows you to use a spare serial port and a *NIX
system to simulate an RK05.

So with all this, it should in theory be possible to build your own 8/e
class system soon enough if you can find all the parts for it.

http://so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/cad/boards.php
https://github.com/Roland-Huisman
https://github.com/drovak/os8diskserver


Regards,
-Tom


mosst at sdf.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org