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DEC Company
The Digital Equipment Corporation is founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson. -
PDP-1 Released
DEC began selling its first computer at the end of 1960. But it was aware of people’s reluctance to invest in “computer” technology at the time, so it named the computer a “programmable data processor”, or PDP. The first iteration of this product line (PDP-1) sold for $120,000 that year. Digital Equipment's first minicomputer, and in 1961 an interactive godsend to the MIT hackers and a slap in the face to IBM fascism. -
MIT gets a PDP-1
IN the summer of 1961, DEC deliver to MIT, absolutely free, the next step in computing PDP-1. The Tech Model Railroad club would soon become fixated with the PDP-1. -
PDP-4 Released
DEC began the process of creating “new” models of the PDP that could be sold for much less than the original. For example, the PDP-4 was similar in most ways to the PDP-1, but it was slower and packaged differently, which is what enabled DEC to sell it for $65,000. Only 54 were sold. The PDP-4 weighed about 1,090 pounds -
Spacewar!
Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. -
PDP-5 Released
It was the world's first commercially produced minicomputer and DEC's first 12-bit machine (1963). It had maximum memory size from 4K words. The PDP-5 weighed about 540 pounds. It was the first computer series with more than 1,000 built, which was a large number in the decade after ENIAC/UNIVAC builders predicted that 3 computers would serve the nation's computing needs. -
Stewart Nelson Hacks Phonelines
Stewart Nelson uses the PDP-1 to hack into the MIT phone lines. This will be the first recorded instance of phreaking. -
PDP-6 Released
Designed in part by Alan Kotok who was influenced by the PDP-1 at MIT, this mainframe computer was cornerstone of AI lab, with its gorgeous instruction set and sixteen sexy registers. -
PDP-7 Released
It was the first computer to use their Flip-Chip technology. With a cost of US$72,000, it was cheap but powerful by the standards of the time. The PDP-7 is the third of Digital's 18-bit machines, with essentially the same instruction set architecture as the PDP-4 and the PDP-9. -
PDP-8 Released
It was in this year when DEC released the PDP-8, which is widely recognized as the first successful commercial minicomputer. Part of this is due to the improvements made to this model, but a large reason for its commercial success was the price tag of $18,500 and the 50,000 customers they sold it to. -
The Greenblatt Program
Richard Greenblatt develops Mac Hack Computer Chess program on PDP-6. -
PDP-10 Released
The PDP-10 is the machine that made time-sharing common, and this and other features made it a common fixture in many university computing facilities and research labs during the 1970s, the most notable being Harvard University's Aiken Computation Laboratory, MIT's AI Lab and Project MAC, and Stanford's SAIL. Its main operating systems, TOPS-10 and TENEX, were used to build out the early ARPANET. For these reasons, the PDP-10 looms large in early hacker folklore. -
PDP-9 Released
Successor to the PDP-7; DEC's first micro-programmed machine (1966). It features a speed increase of approximately twice that of the PDP-7. The PDP-9 is also one of the first small or medium scale computers to have a keyboard monitor system based on DIGITAL's own small magnetic tape units. The PDP-9 established minicomputers as the leading edge of the computer industry. -
Incompatible Time Share Program
A time sharing operating system developed in assembly language for the PDP-6 and later the PDP-10. -
Bill Gates and PDP-10
Bill Gates meets the PDP-10 and history is made. Gates learns to program thanks to the timesharing of PDP-10 giving more people including school age children access to computers. Gates was 13 at the time. -
PDP-12 Released
12-bit machine (1969), descendant of the LINC-8 and thus of the PDP-8. It can execute the instruction set of either system. See LINC and PDP-12 User Manual. With slight redesign, and different livery, officially followed by, and marketed as, the "Lab-8" -
Unix Operating System
The Unix operating system was officially named and ran on the PDP-11/20. The new operating system was a single-tasking system -
PDP-11
In the interim, DEC came up with a revamped version of their PDP line and released the PDP-11 minicomputer. Not only did it bring major upgraded features to their computing machines, it also was easier to use. By the time it stopped selling it in the 1990s, DEC sold over 600,000 of them, making it one of the most popular minicomputers ever. -
Altair BASIC
Bill Gates and Paul Allen develop the Altair BASIC interrupter using the PDP-10. This launches the software industry. The pair start Microsoft shortly after this. -
Colossal Cave Adventure(a.k.a Adventure)
Will Crowther and Dan Woods develop the first interactive fiction Adventure game using the PDP-10.
