<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">I think the H8 was an Intel 8080 based box. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit_H8">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit_H8</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">My recollection is that the PDP series computers were built on multiple flip cards rather than based on microcomputer chips like the 8080. The PDP-8, at least the original one was about the size of a small refrigerator.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Of course, as you say, there are a lot of years of data overload in the wetware between then and now!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Dave Tosti-Lane</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 2:25 PM, James D Smith, RC4 Wireless via Stagecraft <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div>Pretty sure my first computer, a Heathkit H8 kit, was a PDP-8. Also built the H9 terminal, and then added an aftermarket 24-line w/ lowercase-characters upgrade. The biggest thing, though, was expanding the original 4K ram to 12K in the H8!</div>
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<div>Maybe a little fuzzy about the finer details; I was 11 yo. Ouch... that was 40 years ago. :(</div>
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<div>Jim</div>
<div>RC4</div>
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<div><font size="2">James David Smith</font></div>
<div><span><a href="http://www.theatrewireless.com/" target="_blank"><font size="2"><strong>RC4 Wireless</strong> / Soundsculpture Incorporated</font></a><font size="2"> <br></font></span></div>
<div><font size="2">Office <a href="tel:919-229-9953" value="+19192299953" target="_blank">919-229-9953</a> | Skype rc4jds</font><span><span> </span></span></div></div></div></div></div></span></div></span></font></span></font></div></span></div></div></span></div></span></div></div></span></div></span></span></div></span></span></span></div></span><span><font size="2"><font face="Tahoma"><font size="3"></font></font></font></span></div></div></div><div><div class="h5">
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<div>------ Original Message ------</div>
<div>From: "Dan Sheehan via Stagecraft" <<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>></div>
<div>To: "Stagecraft Mailing List" <<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>></div>
<div>Cc: "Dan Sheehan" <<a href="mailto:dsheehan.sml@gmail.com" target="_blank">dsheehan.sml@gmail.com</a>></div>
<div>Sent: 27-Nov-15 7:37:04 AM</div>
<div>Subject: Re: [SML] turning off light boards</div>
<div> </div>
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<blockquote cite="http://CAF5K5-ULL2Dg09VE10ZVzdKVFY95YsEXUmCWq6bZ0mRaBowmNA@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">DEC PDP-8's in GenRad 1790-series board testers.
<div>12 bits wide, octal notation for 4 3-bit groups.</div>
<div>Hand-toggled in a few machine code instructions to boot it up.</div>
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<div>That was well back in BC </div>
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<div>(Before Children)</div></div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 2:00 AM, Jerry Durand via Stagecraft <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT:1ex;BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex">In the late 1970s I ran a couple of PDP 11 systems to control<br>semiconductor testing in a pilot line. I still have the hard disk from<br>the first IBM 286 sold out here sitting on my shelf next to the<br>prototype for the first mass-produced computer voice board.<br><br>Ah, history. That and $12.95 might buy me a soda.<br>
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<div><br>On 11/26/2015 10:49 PM, Steven Santos via Stagecraft wrote:<br>> I used a PDP-11 in high school back in the early 1990's. One of my<br>> after school jobs at the time was assisting a friends father<br>> installing and maintaining Digital Alpha and Sun Solaris servers, as<br>> well as the workstations that went with them. Had one client that had<br>> 3 PDP-11's (a 55, a 65 and a 70 IIRC), 2 racks of Sun servers (6ish)<br>> and and 8(!) digital alpha servers (2100 series I believe it was) and<br>> a home-brewed box they called "big bertha" that had a ton of hard<br>> drives in it and wired to it. No one ever told me what these guys<br>> did, but we spent a LOT of time making network authentication work<br>> right. The PDP-11's did not want to work with Sun's network<br>> authentication. Neither did the Windows for Workgroups (3.11)<br>> machines want to do it.<br>><br>> I still remember being blown away that an office of 12 would have this<br>> many servers running, and that each of these guys had a bleeding edge<br>> W4W 386, a DEC term and a Solaris box (with 2 screens!) sitting on<br>> each desk. My whole school had 1 pdp-11 that powered 2 classrooms of<br>> workstations, plus the school admin terminals.<br>><br>> Now my phone has more computing power than that whole office did.<br>> ---<br>> Steven Santos<br>> Director<br>> Simply Circus, Inc.<br>> 86 Los Angeles Street<br>> Newton, MA 02458<br>><br>> P: <a href="tel:617-527-0667" value="+16175270667" target="_blank">617-527-0667</a><br>> F: <a href="tel:617-934-1870" value="+16179341870" target="_blank">617-934-1870</a><br>> E: <a href="mailto:Steven@SimplyCircus.com" target="_blank">Steven@SimplyCircus.com</a><br>><br>><br>> On Thu, Nov 26, 2015 at 4:23 PM, Kristi R-C via Stagecraft<br>> <<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>> wrote:<br>>> DEC made tanks. I used to program on a PDP 11/70. I think you could have bombed it and it would have been fine.<br>>><br>>> Kristi R-C<br>>><br>>>> On Nov 26, 2015, at 12:32 PM, Chip Wood via Stagecraft <<a href="mailto:stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">stagecraft@theatrical.net</a>> wrote:<br>>>><br>>>> Did that in '75 when NSA retired their PDP-1 (Serial # 1) for a PDP-10 back when core was core and NSA was only a little paranoid. Ran a million cycles of random data thru it and they said that wasn't enough. So we yanked it and put it on a shelf. That thing could still be there after 40 years.<br>>>><br>>>> Chip 1<br>>>><br>>>>> On 11/24/2015 8:41 AM, Alf Sauve' via Stagecraft wrote:<br>>>>>> On 11/23/2015 10:36 PM, Richard John Archer via Stagecraft wrote:<br>>>>>> volatile core memories<br>>>>> Never heard of "volatile" core memory. One of the advantages, possible the only one, of 'core" memory was that it was not volatile. It actually was a real pain if you were trying to scrub it clean of classified data. Been there. done that.<br>>>><br>>>> ____________________________________________________________<br>>>> For list information see <<a href="http://stagecraft.theprices.net/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://stagecraft.theprices.net/</a>><br>>>> Stagecraft mailing list<br>>>> <a href="mailto:Stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">Stagecraft@theatrical.net</a><br>>>> <a href="http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net</a><br>>> ____________________________________________________________<br>>> For list information see <<a href="http://stagecraft.theprices.net/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://stagecraft.theprices.net/</a>><br>>> Stagecraft mailing list<br>>> <a href="mailto:Stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">Stagecraft@theatrical.net</a><br>>> <a href="http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net</a><br>>><br>> ____________________________________________________________<br>> For list information see <<a href="http://stagecraft.theprices.net/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://stagecraft.theprices.net/</a>><br>> Stagecraft mailing list<br>> <a href="mailto:Stagecraft@theatrical.net" target="_blank">Stagecraft@theatrical.net</a><br>> <a href="http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net</a><br><br></div></div><span>--<br>Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc. <a href="http://www.interstellar.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">www.interstellar.com</a><br>tel: <a href="tel:%2B1%20408%20356-3886" value="+14083563886" target="_blank">+1 408 356-3886</a>, USA toll free: <a href="tel:1%20866%20356-3886" value="+18663563886" target="_blank">1 866 356-3886</a><br><br><br></span>
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<div>...Dan Sheehan<br>Fixer of things that break<br><br></div></div></blockquote></div>
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