Loading ...
PDP-9 console arrives
I’ve finally taken possession of the PDP-9 console I’ve been saving for for the last few months. It didn’t come cheap, but for such a unique item I was prepared to dig deep. My plan now is to rebuild a replica rack and hook up a simh emulator to the console. I will avoid making any modifications to the console so its left in original condition.
Along with the console, I’m also look at the feasibility of hooking up a TU55 drive, a paper tape drive and a deflection monitor
Along with the console I also aquired a set of 5 ex-PDP-12 backplanes and numerous flip chips so in the long term I am toying with the idea of building a TTL 18-bit processor. Whilst still not a true PDP-9 it would be an interesting exercise and a good bit more authentic than running an emulator.
Next steps are to start to draw up plans for the rack.
Posted under Uncategorized by Toby Russell on 07.16.2009
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
One Response to “PDP-9 console arrives”
The PDP-9 was essentially the first computer at which I learned what computers were about. On it I learned Fortran II and IV as well as assembly. In addition, I invented the operating system in order to use the DEC Tapes – that was until I found a DEC Tape with the operating system already present.
At the time we received the beast (1972 – surplus) I was already banging on a DG Nova 1200. The ‘9 had 8k words of memory, paper tape reader and punch, two DEC Tapes, and a X-Y CRT.
The Nova ran our nuclear data analyzer and generated paper tapes off a clunk-clunk which then were used to punch cards which fed the local CDC 6400 for analysis. I programmed the ‘9 to read in the tapes and used the CRT and light pen to do the background fitting saving literally a month of time. The program took 5 chains to execute.
On damp days the beast would fail and we would have to stuff punch cards into the control memory to keep it up. With all the work studiying the designs to keep the thing going, the asynchronous design totally screwed my interface designs for years…
In the ’80s one of my customers had one in a back room and, without thinking, I keyed in the boot sequence and brought the thing up – something I don’t think I could do today.
Good luck with your project!!
Leave a Reply