PDP-10 is a mainframe manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) since the late 1960s. His name stands for "Programmed Data Processor Model 10". This machine has been used at many universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University .
The PDP-10 architecture was almost identical to the earlier PDP-6 architecture, had a 36-bit machine word length and a slightly modified instruction set.
Models
- Ka10
- KI10 and KL10
- Massbus
- Model B
- KS10
- MCA25
Software
The first operating system for the PDP-10 was simply called the Monitor, but was renamed TOPS-10 . Later, the PDP-10 machine itself was renamed to DECsystem-10. Early versions of TOPS-10 are based on Stanford University’s WAITS and time-sharing CompuServe systems.
Over time, some customers have adopted operating systems built from components developed outside of DEC. For example, a task scheduler could belong to one university, and a disk system to another.
BBN developed the alternative TENEX operating system, which quickly became the de facto standard in the research community. DEC later transferred Tenex to the KL10 with significant improvements and named TOPS-20 , forming the DECSYSTEM-20 series. MIT also developed its own version called Incompatible Timesharing System (as opposed to IBM's Compatible Time-Sharing System ).
Links
- 36 Bits Forever!
- PDP-10 stuff
- PDP10 Miscellany Page
- Life in the Fast AC's
- Columbia University DEC PDP-10 page
- Panda Programming TOPS-20 page
- PDP Planet , Digital Equipment Corporation's mainframe collection, including the running PDP-10
- PDP-10 software archive at Trailing Edge
- PDP-10 documentation at bitsavers.org