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Tech nostalgia enthusiasts have made a PiDP-10, a replica of the PDP-10

61 points by zdw

by rst

1 subcomments

Correction -- it's a 2:3 scale model of a PDP-10 front panel, concealing a Raspberry Pi running an emulator. In the original equipment, the panel would have been attached to one of several racks containing the CPU and main memory, cabled up to peripherals (tape drives like in '60s movies, disk drives the size of washing machines) through wires under the false floor of a dedicated computer room...
The PiDP-10 accurately models the console, but it doesn't depict the rest of this at all.

by ChuckMcM

2 subcomments

I've got one of these and its glorious if you fondly remember the PDP-10 as I do.
Yes, its just being emulated on a Raspberry Pi, but seriously running a "real" one generates several kW of heat and required even more kW of power. Not to mention space.
I do have a couple of "real" PDP-8s (an 8/e, 8/f, 8/m and most of an 8/a) but I rarely run them because they take a lot of power and they are noisy. I've got a PiDP-11/70 which is running RSX-11M and Pi-hole and DHCP and logs the iOT temperature widgets I built. So it looks good, and does helpful things. Not to mention you can SSH to it and get your RSX-11M console right there :-).
So while you don't get the visceral response of a "real" one, 90% of the time you were never in the same room as one in the first place, it ran in the machine room and you were in a room next door typing on a VT100 (or VT-52 ewwww!)

by JKCalhoun

1 subcomments

Curious Marc did a video on this recently. Did I see it on HN?
https://youtu.be/E0Pp63gsdZI

by garciasn

0 subcomment

I have the PiPDP11 and I had a ball putting it together. I love watching it blink at me all day; it’s soothing and it was gratifying to do.
I plan on getting the 8 and 10 someday and putting those together too.
Such a great kit. Highly recommended.

by Suzuran

1 subcomments

I feel I should point this out because it seems to be a point of confusion: "PDP" is not a single unified product line. The numbers do not indicate linear progress. There is no architectural relationship between a PDP-8, a PDP-10, and a PDP-11. "PDP" is just the TLA for "Programmed Data Processor", the term DEC used instead of "Computer" to avoid the business/political connotations that the word "computer" had at the time.

by boznz

2 subcomments

DEC Number #2 in computing during the 80's, bought by Compaq, bought by HP and now almost unknown. How the mighty fall.

by Pet_Ant

2 subcomments

How long till someone ports NetBSD to it now that it’s more viable?
There was work in the past: http://www.jp.netbsd.org/ports/pdp10/

by anamax

1 subcomments

There seems to be at least one commercially available PDP-10 clone - https://xkl.com/about/

by ChrisArchitect

0 subcomment