Skip to content

v2.2 — the PDP-1 strand and the DEC family

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@dmberry dmberry released this 18 Jun 10:30
v2.2
0e1d906

A major content build-out, with a restructured menu.

Menu: the old Code dropdown becomes The Game (Overview · Versions · The object · Play); the PDP-1 menu gains Software environment and As a games machine; a new DEC group collects the wider family.

New pages

  • Spacewar! Overview — a deep-dive on the game itself: design, play, strategy, and links into every thread.
  • The PDP-1 software environment — no operating system, paper tape, the assemblers, DDT, the Expensive Typewriter and TECO, and the first time-sharing.
  • The PDP-1 as a games machine — Spacewar! and the honest, short story of PDP-1 play (the Minskytron, Snowflake, Munching Squares).
  • The DEC PDP family — a comparative table of the whole PDP line (PDP-1 to PDP-15), word length, memory, price and notable software, with source conflicts flagged.
  • PDPs at universities — which lab ran which PDP, and the foundational software (Spacewar!, time-sharing, Unix, Lisp, AI, BSD).
  • The legacy of the PDP — the line forward: PDP-11 → VAX/VMS, Unix's PDP roots, the architecture's influence, DEC's later course.

Also: the Programming page's instruction-set lookup is now sortable (click a column heading) with a column glossary. Restore point; stable fast-forwarded.

Assets 2
Loading