PDP-1 Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) was the first computer in Digital Equipment's PDP series and was first produced in 1960. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture, at MIT, BBN and elsewhere.

The PDP-1 was also the original hardware for playing history's first computer game, Steve Russell's Spacewar.

It used punched paper tape as its primary storage medium. Unlike punched card decks, which could be sorted and re-ordered, paper tape was difficult to physically edit. This inspired the creation of text-editing programs such as Expensive Typewriter and TECO. Because it was equipped with online and offline printers that were based on IBM electric typewriters, it was capable of what, in eighties terminology, would be called "letter-quality printing" and therefore inspired TJ-2, arguably the first word processor.

MIT hackers also used the PDP-1 for playing music in four-part harmony, using some special hardware--four flip-flops directly controlled by the processor (filtered with simple RC filters). Music was prepared via Pete Samson's Harmony Compiler, a sophisticated text-based program with some features specifically oriented toward the efficient coding of baroque music. Several hours of music were prepared for it, including Bach fugues, all of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Christmas carols, and numerous popular songs.

It had an 18-bit word and had 4K words as standard main memory (equivalent to 9 kilobytes), upgradable to 64K words (144 KB). The magnetic core memory's cycle time was 5 microseconds (corresponding very roughly to a "clock speed" of 200 kilohertz); consequently most arithmetic instructions took 10 microseconds (100,000 operations per second) because they had two memory cycles: one for the instruction, one for the operand data fetch.

The PDP-1 was built mostly of DEC 1000-series system modules, using Micro-Alloy and Micro-Alloy-Diffused Transistors. Rated switching speed: 5 MHz.

External links

• DEC PDP-1 information – Website by greeng3@rpi.edu, including DEC's 1963 PROGRAMMED DATA PROCESSOR-1 HANDBOOK)
• bitsavers.org PDP-1 directory – Scanned documentation incl PDP-1 handbook, maintenance manual, price list, diagnostic documentation, etc.
• PDP-1 Restoration Project – Computer History Museum PDP-1 Restoration Project

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