PiDP-11
retroviator.com
retroviator.com
Upon its release, we will have a reproduction of the entire chronology of hacker culture, featuring three of the most iconic computers in history: the PDP-1 (Spacewar, TECO, LISP, DDT), the PDP-10 (ITS, emacs, TeX, Scheme), and the PDP-11 (UNIX). These three machines stand as the primary ancestors of GNU/Linux and the BSDs. What an exciting era to be alive as a computer hobbyist!
Maybe this could launch a small industry as well. I wouldn't mind having small scale "blinkenlights" replicas of other iconic machines too - the EDSAC, the Bull Gamma 60, the IBM 360/40, the CDC 6600 and the Cray 1 come to mind, but finding software for them would be the hard part.
I need to experience the majesty of SID scalar and vector processor synthesis for myself.
However, there is not enough power in that city block, to turn it on :-)
https://lssmuseum.org (you may be redirected to MACT.io which is the same people).
Then they tried MIPS for a while, and I think(?) PRISM became the basis for the Alpha. Also the other 'minicomputers' - IBM AS/400 came out in 1988, and the HP3000 switched to PA-RISC.
I used a 2100, 3100, 4000/25, and 4000/125 (?) I think. They were decent workstations for their time.
'I' stands for 'Integrated', as it was the first PDP-10 CPU to utilize ICs, and 'L' stands for 'LSI'.
There was also the ill-fated KC-10, which was unfortunately killed for various reasons, both technical and strategic as it was competing with the 11/780. It was to use integrated NAND chips like the 11/750 (or even the Cray 1). I'm not sure what the 'C' stood for.
Oh, I should also mention the small KS-10, which had a mini form factor (the DEC10-20 was a mainframe). I guess you can figure what the 'S' stood for.
Oh, no...if you're gonna do it, make it something like the 360/91 or 360/195. The more blinkenlights, the better.
Cray 1
Didn't really have a front panel, tho. Several people have done a Cray-1 3d print case.
CDC 6600
Since the 'operator console' for the 6600 was a dual vector scope display (think giant oscilloscopes), this would be awesome.
It’s a different color scheme, but pleasingly similar tactile qualities
This is a great kit and a lot of fun. I have one (and one of his PiDP-8's and as soon as they are available one of his Dec 10 ones :-)
So its neat and retro and blinking lights right? It's also art (for the nerds in the house) and who doesn't currently have a Raspberry Pi doing misc stuff on their net at home right? So mine, while looking gorgeous is also running PiHole, the ad and ad-tracker eating DNS service, as well as providing network surveillance for weird stuff going on. So functional and pretty.
Also, from my communications with Oscar, he is a cool guy.
A couple of things:
0. The physical quality of this build is out of the world good. PCB, plastics, switches, it's all amazing
1. The software as provided has a pretty old school build process (part of the charm?). I tightened up a bunch of it and dockerized it at https://github.com/mtrudel/pibox/tree/main/pidp11
2. I wish the build would have used something like an MCP23017 for IO instead of claiming so many RPi GPIOs. There's only a few (2-3 IIRC) GPIOs unused by the front panel, and the matrix LED/switch scan setup burns a ton of CPU
I wish he had used a few MAX7219 LED driver ICs - they just need 4 IO pins, can be chained together, and don't need any maintenance CPU cycles unless a change in config is desired.
They also ensure perfect brightness control, and are current controlled LED drivers instead of using 330 Ohm resistors that waste power...all power goes to illuminating the LEDs and none is wasted as heat in resistors.
Maybe I should write him and offer my help in switching for the next spin of the PCBs.
$270 for the kit plus $45 shipping, more if you want them to assemble it for you, and you provide the Pi.
There's lots of additional resources out there too. I was learning Forth at the time and found a bootable image that runs perfectly on the PiDP, documented here: https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-11/c/qIjZeA_WCPU
[1] https://www.tindie.com/products/obso/pdp-11-replica-kit-the-...
[1] https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/ [2] https://adwaterandstir.com/altair/
Would be neat to connect a VT220 to if they get the serial port working.
I have mine connected to a TeleVideo terminal.
One interesting episode I remember to this day was when we got some error messages from the PDP-8. I ran a diagnostic that said the one of the boards in the computer was experiencing intermittent errors. I ran a diagnostic which said yes one of the boards was failing. We had a maintenance contract, so I called DEC and they sent out a repair person. He ran the diagnostic again and confirmed that a board was failing. I expected him to just replace the board. But No! He pulled the board out of the computer, unsoldered a transistor, and soldered in a new transistor. After running the diagnostic to confirm that the problem was fixed he went on his way and we were back in business. Nowadays if you get a hardware failure you have to replace an entire Motherboard, or a memory board.
It’s a fun moment playing DUNGEO and ADVENT on green bar again.