The PDP-10 family of computers (under different names) was manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation between 1964 and 1983. Designed for time-sharing, batch and real-time systems, these computers were popular with universities, scientific companies and time-sharing bureaux. Several operating systems were available, some from DEC and some built by its users.
It had a large influence on operating system design, artificial intelligence (especially at MIT and Stanford), programming languages (LISP, ML), applications (TeX, Emacs), online communication (ARPANET, Compuserve), games (Advent, Zork) and even helped development of Microsoft’s first version of BASIC.
↫ Rupert Lane
The importance, impact, and legacy of the PDP series of computers cannot be understated, running like a red thread through the early days and development of several important and crucial technologies. Lane is going to cover a number of the operating systems created for the PDP-10, so if you’re interested – keep a bookmark.
It’s worth noting the “PDP” range isn’t really a series, but a family of 4 distinct families of computers. The 18-bit PDP-1, 4, 7, 9, 15. The 12-bit PDP-5 and 8, the 36-bit PDP-6 and 10, and the 16-bit PDP-11. These families share DNA (and some compatibility) between members of their family, but don’t share much between the other families, outside their name.
At some point, DEC decided the PDP- naming scheme was confusing, so started naming new, compatible designs as model numbers inside their respective families (hence the PDP-11/20, PDP11/35 etc)
However, not to knock Thom, pretty much every one of the 4 families had a significant effect on the computing landscape. The PDP-1 family was used extensively in scientific and space exploration, and even birthed UNIX. The PDP-8 series essentially wrote the book on small systems (of the time) and birthed the “modern” (then) minicomputer. The PDP-10 was seriously powerful machine capable of complex calculations, and used by government agencies and universities alike. And the PDP-11, well i don’t think i need to mention that series of machines, it speaks for itself.
DEC20 was my first university computer. It was awesome. I learned Pascal and LISP on it. It seemed liked a serious work horse of a computer. It only bogged down around finals when everyone was compiling final projects.IT had tape drives, an x9700 high speed Xerox laser printer, networking, email, chat, You could check the system load with ^T. A few guys would learn Macro Assembler and would have access to system internals. I never saw the actual computer. Students did not have access. I was shocked when the DEC20’s were replaced by Vaxes. VAX seemed paltry in comparison. DEC was not able to develop a successor to the KL10 processor. They had a project and it failed. Kind of shocking. I guess VAX was cheaper to manufacture, supported 32-bit memory, and was very successful. All the software for DEC20 was a dead end despite how well it worked.