PDP-7
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox computing device
The PDP-7 is an 18-bit minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation as part of the PDP series. Introduced in 1964,<ref name=SOEM_DEC57.PRES/>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> shipped since 1965, it was the first<ref name=SOEM>Template:Cite web</ref> to use their Flip-Chip technology. With a cost of Template:USD, it was cheap but powerful by the standards of the time. The PDP-7 is the third of Digital's 18-bit machines, with essentially the same instruction set architecture as the PDP-4 and the PDP-9.
Hardware
[edit]The PDP-7 was the first wire-wrapped PDP computer. The computer has a memory cycle time of Template:Nowrap and an add time of Template:Nowrap. Input/output (I/O) includes a keyboard, printer, punched tape and dual transport DECtape drives (type 555).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The standard core memory capacity is Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap but expandable up to Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap<ref name=liinfopdp7 />
The PDP-7 weighs about Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Software
[edit]DECsys, the first operating system for DEC's 18-bit computer family (and DEC's first operating system for a computer smaller than its 36-bit timesharing systems), was introduced in 1965. It provides an interactive, single user, program development environment for Fortran and assembly language programs.<ref name=DECsys>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1969, Ken Thompson wrote the first UNIX system, then named Unics as a pun on Multics despite only using two design elements from Multics,<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in assembly language on a PDP-7,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as the operating system for Space Travel, a game which requires graphics to depict the motion of the planets. A PDP-7 was also the development system used during the development of MUMPS at MGH in Boston a few years earlier.
Sales
[edit]The PDP-7 was described as "highly successful."<ref name=RICM>Template:Cite web</ref> A combined total of 120 of the PDP-7 and PDP-7A were sold.<ref name=SOEM_DEC57.PRES>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp A DEC publication states that the first units shipped to customers in November 1964.
Eleven systems were shipped to the UK.<ref name=SOEM/>
Restorations
[edit]At least four PDP-7s were confirmed to still exist as of 2011<ref name=SOEM/> and a fifth was discovered in 2017.<ref name=Yerian/>
A PDP-7A (serial number 115) was under restoration in Oslo, Norway;<ref>Template:Cite web PDP-7 restoration project located in Oslo, Norway.</ref> a second PDP-7A (serial number 113) previously located at the University of Oregon in its Nuclear Physics laboratory is now at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, Washington and is completely restored to running condition after being disassembled for transport;<ref>Template:Cite web University of Oregon's PDP-7 moves to the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, Washington. Alternate host at https://www.soemtron.org/pdp7no113systeminfo.html "January 2011" section.</ref> Another PDP-7 (serial number 47) is known to be in the collection of Max Burnet near Sydney, Australia, a fourth PDP-7 (serial number 33) is in storage at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California and a fifth PDP-7 (serial number 129) belonging to Fred Yerian is also located at the Museum, and has been demonstrated running Unix version 0 and compiling a B program.<ref name=Yerian>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Information about the PDP-7 and PDP-7/A, including some manuals and a customer list covering 99 of the systems shipped, Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-7.
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