Aaron's Home Page

Online PDP-8 Home Page, Run a PDP-8

This site is for people who wish to learn about the PDP-8 minicomputer and for current PDP-8 users to get more information on these machines. The PDP-8 was an important early mini-computer in the history of computing and many are still running today performing their original function. The PDP-8 was used for industrial control, controlling experiments, running businesses, word processing, and many other uses.

This site is a work in progress so please make comments or request what you would like to see. At the bottom of most pages is a link to contact me. I have been concentrating on the ability to run a PDP8 over the web. I think that is working pretty well. If you haven't ever run a PDP8 especially if you haven't used command line operating systems the online documentation may not be sufficient to operate it like a pro but I have made it easy to play some of the games.

Various bits on this site are from Douglas W. Jones FAQ's The PDP-8 family of minicomputers were built by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) between 1965 and 1990. It was the follow-on to the PDP-5 computer with some instruction set changes. By late 1973, the PDP-8 family was the best-selling computer in the world. The PDP-8 has been described as the model-T of the computer industry because it was the first computer to be mass-produced at a cost that just about anyone could afford (at least with company money).

The PDP-8 is a 12-bit single accumulator machine that can address up to 32K 12 bit words. It has 8 basic instructions and the PDP-8/E executes them in 1.2 microseconds for simple instructions to 4 microseconds for complex memory reference instructions. This gives the machine about a .5 MIPS rating. Although the computer is very slow and memory limited by today's standards it was quite capable in its time.

Since the PDP-8 was a more personal machine than the larger more expensive machines, it was popular for playing with and various games were either written for it or ported to it from even earlier machines. More game information.

People also wrote programs to play sound on the pdp8. The pdp8 didn't require a fancy sound card, only an AM radio. Sound information and samples.

Aaron's LINC/PDP-5/PDP-8/PDP-12 docs

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

LAP6-DIAL

???? CONVERT DEC-12-ESYB-D

???? LINC-8 SIMULATOR TRAP PROCESSOR DEC-12SI1B-D

???? PDP-12 CATACAL

1969 PDP-12 LAP 6-DIAL Prog. Reference Manual DEC-12-SE2B-D

1970 Signal Averager User's Guide DEC-12-UZ1A-D

1970 TISA DEC-12-UW3A-D

1970 DIAL-MS (supplement) DEC-12-SE2D-DN

1970 FRED DEC-12-FZFA-D

1970 ADTAPE & ADCON DEC-12-UW2A-D

1970 SINPRE DEC-12-UW4A-D

1970 PATCH DEC-12-YU2A-D

1970 DEMO 12 Monitor System User's Guide DEC-12-UXZA-D

1971 LIFE DEC-12-UW8A-D

1971 TED (Tape EDitor) DEC-12-EOSA-D

1971 LIFE DEC-12-UW8B-D

OS/8

1972 OS/8 User's Manual (Provisional) DEC-S8-OSUMA-A-D

1973 TECO User's Manual DEC-S8-UTECA-A-D

1973 OS/8 TECO Users Manual DEC-S8-UTECA-A-D

1974 Industrial BASIC DEC-S8-OSIBA-A-D

1974 OS/8 Software Support Manual (Version 3) DEC-S8-OSSMB-A-D

1975 OS/8 Getting on the Air DEC-S8-OSGAB-B-D

PDP-12

1970 Software Package and Services DEC-12-BW1G-D

1971 MARK12 DEC-12-YITB-D

1971 Display DEC-12-FLSB-D

1973 FPP Assembler User's Guide DEC-12-UFPAA-A-D

MAINDECs

1970 MAINDEC 12-D8CC-D KW12A CLOCK TEST

DECUS

1967 DECUS #8-122 SNAP (Simplified Numerical Analysis)

1968 DECUS #8-143 FFTS-R A Fast Fourier Transform Subr ...

1968 DECUS #8-143 FFTS-R (listing)

1968 DECUS #8-159 CINET-BASIC

???? DECUS #8-195 POLY BASIC

1972 DECUS #8-227 FOCL/F An extended version of 8-K FOCAL 69

1970 DECUS #8-309 Patches and a utility program for LAB-8

1970 DECUS #8-335 COLPAC

1971 DECUS #8-420 LOGSIM-8

1971 DECUS #8-427 MEMO - A Text Formatting Program

1971 DECUS #8-465 The SKED software system

1973 DECUS #8-626 Automated Electrooculography

???? DECUS #8-639 OS/8 DISASM (listing)

1976 DECUS #8-798 OS/8 to RSTS interface

1976 DECUS #8-806 SAC8: Simulation of an Analogue Computer

1976 DECUS #8-813 DIGFIL: Recurisive digital filter

1976 DECUS #8-821 SPASTIC IV

1976 DECUS #8-817 LABCOL I

1971 DECUS #12-24 OVERLAYS TO FOCAL-12

1972 DECUS #12-102 A MANUAL FOR THE PDP-12 OPERATOR

1969 DECUS #FOCAL8-52 FOCAL 5/69

1976 DECUS #FOCAL8-330 SIMPE: The Simplex Method to Fit Eq. ...

1972 DECUS #FOCAL8-227 FOCL/F An Ext. Version of 8-K FOCAL 69

1974 Update to Volume II of PDP-8, FOCAL8, BASIC8, PDP-12 CATALOG

1975 Supplement to (PDP-8...) Vol I and II

OTHER

1965 Programming the LINC

1966 LINC-8 User Handbook (PRELIMINARY) F-L85P

1967 Digital Logic Handbook FLIP CHIP Modules

1968 Introduction To Programming

1971 Digital Control Handbook