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Comment by rahen | Hacker News Reader

The next addition to this series once the PiDP-10 is released should be the PiDP-1.

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.

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No, F that. PiVAX 9000 incoming. We have the technology. I want a room sized replica of the computer that helped ruin the only decent employer in my state for a generation.

I need to experience the majesty of SID scalar and vector processor synthesis for myself.

There is a VAX 9000 in the flesh, at the Large Scale Systems Museum near Pittsburgh, PA. The processor complex board is crazy looking ...

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).

I think the handwriting was on the wall when the VAX 8600 was introduced. It was introduced 7ish years after the 11/780, and was only a few times faster. Today, in the twilight years of Moore's Law, a factor of a few speedup over 7 years would not be all that bad, but back then it was shocking. I felt the VAX line was a slowly sinking ship from that point on.

I would choose a VAXi-11/780 if its appearance wasn't so plain and dull. In comparison, the early PDP-10s, particularly the KA-10 and KI-10, are charming. They are probably the epitome of computer aesthetic alongside the 11/40-45-70 series.

Do you happen to know what the KA and KL prefixes stand for?

I'm uncertain about the 'A' in KA, it might suggest that it was the initial release.

'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.

Also, the PRISM/MICA project got cancelled so Dave Cutler (and whomever he took with him) left for Microsoft.

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.

The DECstation line was MIPS-based, and DEC sold Ultrix, a BSD-based Unix.

I used a 2100, 3100, 4000/25, and 4000/125 (?) I think. They were decent workstations for their time.

IBM 360/40

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.

Iirc Cray used a Data General Nova as an operators console for some of their systems.

It’s a different color scheme, but pleasingly similar tactile qualities

Alas, not all Novas have front panels either. Cray supported a couple of different front ends; I dunno what the options were for the Cray-1, but in the mid-80s the PSC X/MP-48 was front-ended by a VAX cluster.

There's also the Cray-on-an-FPGA: http://www.chrisfenton.com/homebrew-cray-1a/

If you want blinkenlights, Connection Machine wins.

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