Editing Digital Equipment Corporation (section)

=== PDP-8 family (1962) ===
{{Main|PDP-8}}
[[File:PDP-8.jpg|thumb|upright|A PDP-8 on display at the [[Smithsonian]]'s [[National Museum of American History]] in Washington, D.C. This example is from the first generation of PDP-8s, built with discrete transistors and later known as the ''Straight 8''.]]

In 1962, [[Lincoln Laboratory]] used a selection of System Building Blocks to implement a small 12-bit machine, and attached it to a variety of [[analog-to-digital]] (A to D) [[input/output]] (I/O) devices that made it easy to interface with various analog lab equipment. The [[LINC]] proved to attract intense interest in the scientific community, and has since been referred to as the first real [[minicomputer]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=786|title=Wesley Clark Builds the LINC, Perhaps the First Mini-Computer|first=Jeremy|last=Norman|website=HistoryofInformation.com}}</ref> a machine that was small and inexpensive enough to be dedicated to a single task even in a small lab.

Seeing the success of the LINC, in 1963 DEC took the basic logic design but stripped away the extensive A to D systems to produce the [[PDP-5]]. The new machine, the first outside the PDP-1 mould, was introduced at [[WESTCON]] on August 11, 1963. A 1964 ad expressed the main advantage of the PDP-5, "Now you can own the PDP-5 computer for what a core memory alone used to cost: $27,000".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/pdp-5.html |title=PDP-5}}{{better source needed|date=August 2022}}</ref> 116 PDP-5s were produced until the lines were shut down in early 1967. Like the PDP-1 before it, the PDP-5 inspired a series of newer models based on the same basic design that would go on to be more famous than its parent.

On March 22, 1965, DEC introduced the [[PDP-8]], which replaced the PDP-5's modules with the new R-series modules using Flip Chips. The machine was re-packaged into a small tabletop case, which remains distinctive for its use of smoked plastic over the CPU which allowed one to easily see the logic modules plugged into the wire-wrapped backplane of the CPU. Sold standard with 4 kWords of 12-bit core memory and a [[Teletype Model 33]] ASR for basic input/output, the machine listed for only $18,000. The PDP-8 is referred to as the first ''real'' [[minicomputer]] because of its sub-$25,000 price.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_processing/1982-960.aspx |title=DEC PDP-8 minicomputer, 1965 |website=The Science Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100318023031/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_processing/1982-960.aspx |archive-date=March 18, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/internethistory/1960s/ |title=Internet History of 1960s |at=1965 |website=Computer History Museum}}</ref> Sales were, unsurprisingly, very strong, and helped by the fact that several competitors had just entered the market with machines aimed directly at the PDP-5's market space, which the PDP-8 trounced. This gave the company two years of unrestricted leadership,<ref>''Present'' 1978, pg. 7</ref> and eventually 1450 "straight eight" machines were produced before it was replaced by newer implementations of the same basic design.<ref name=faqpdp8>{{cite web |url=https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/pdp-8.html |title=PDP-8}}{{better source needed|date=August 2022}}</ref>

DEC hit an even lower price-point with the PDP-8/S, the S for "serial". As the name implies the /S used a serial arithmetic unit, which was much slower but reduced costs so much that the system sold for under $10,000.<ref>''Present'' 1978, pg. 8</ref> DEC then used the new PDP-8 design as the basis for a new LINC, the two-processor [[LINC-8]]. The LINC-8 used one PDP-8 CPU and a separate LINC CPU, and included instructions to switch from one to the other. This allowed customers to run their existing LINC programs, or "upgrade" to the PDP-8, all in software. Although not a huge seller, 142 LINC-8s were sold starting at $38,500.<ref name=faqpdp8/> Like the original LINC to PDP-5 evolution, the LINC-8 was then modified into the single-processor [[PDP-12]], adding another 1000 machines to the 12-bit family.<ref name=faqpdp8/><ref name="miller456">Miller 1997, pg. 456</ref> Newer circuitry designs led to the PDP-8/I and PDP-8/L in 1968.<ref name="present10">''Present'' 1978, pg. 10</ref> In 1975, one year after an agreement between DEC and [[Intersil]], the [[Intersil 6100]] chip was launched, effectively a PDP-8 on a chip. This was a way to allow PDP-8 software to be run even after the official end-of-life announcement for the DEC PDP-8 product line.