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PDP-1 Dead

PDP-1
KindMachine
Introduced1959
Discontinued1969
StatusDead
ManufacturerDigital Equipment Corporation
ClassMinicomputer
Platform18-bit
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

DEC's first computer — the machine of Spacewar!, of the MIT hacker culture, of the first chess and first word-processing programs. Fifty-three built; one still runs at CHM.

Created by Digital Equipment Corporation

Ben Gurley designed the PDP-1 from MIT's TX-0/TX-2 lineage — 18-bit, $120,000, the first computer sold with a display as standard. Fifty-three were built, the first to BBN in 1960.

At MIT it became the hacker machine: Spacewar! (1962), the first chess program, the first word processor (Expensive Typewriter), Minsky's music demonstrations. The Computer History Museum's unit is restored and demonstrated.

→ Read the full article on the ALB Wiki

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp1/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1