[HN Gopher] PiDP-11
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PiDP-11
Author : rcarmo
Score : 104 points
Date : 2023-11-27 08:39 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (retroviator.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (retroviator.com)
| kej wrote:
| It's a few links deep, but the order page is here:
| https://www.ceds.dev/pidp
|
| $270 for the kit plus $45 shipping, more if you want them to
| assemble it for you, and you provide the Pi.
| ithkuil wrote:
| Got one last week Well made. Love the name too!
| codezero wrote:
| It says you can't buy them, but I see them for sale on Tindie[1]
| and it looks to be from the same person, though I don't see links
| to Tindie on their wix site, but I could be missing them. Anyone
| have any more info?
|
| [1] https://www.tindie.com/products/obso/pdp-11-replica-kit-
| the-...
| sixothree wrote:
| I would believe the Tindie status moreso than the article from
| a few years ago. I've had zero issues with stock counts on
| Tindie, but you can contact him via the store there.
| codezero wrote:
| Ah, I didn't catch that this blog post was outdated! Thanks
| for that.
| ithkuil wrote:
| I bought it from Tindie and I'm happy about the purchase fwiw.
| Nice human touch like my name hand written on the box :-)
| petrohi wrote:
| I want to mention another awesome project, which implements
| PDP-11 on FPGA and can be used with PiDP-11 panel. (PiDP-11 by
| default uses software emulator running on Raspberry Pi.)
|
| https://pdp2011.sytse.net/wordpress/
| fader wrote:
| I got one of these kits a few years ago and can highly recommend
| it. It was a ton of fun to build and play with. I found an old
| VT-100 clone on eBay and hooked mine up to it for even more retro
| fun.
|
| 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
| OliverJones wrote:
| Cool! The 11/70 I worked on had a defective floating point unit
| for a while; when it overheated it would start garbling MUL
| results. I don't suppose this has that "feature" :-)
| asow92 wrote:
| > I'm not done yet. I may enable a serial terminal connection for
| the PDP-11 emulator, and I will continue exploring the PDP and
| Raspberry Pi software.
|
| Would be neat to connect a VT220 to if they get the serial port
| working.
| theodric wrote:
| It's been a while since I built mine, but I'm pretty sure it
| supports 4 serial interfaces. At any rate, Oscar had a VT220
| hooked up to a PiDP-11 at VCF ZH 2019.
| ebruchez wrote:
| Yes it supports up to 4 serial interfaces given the ports
| available on the Pi. You can use small USB-to-RS232
| converters, and/or use the built-in USB-to-serial plus
| additional USB-to-serial converters and solder two MAX232
| chips on the board.
|
| I have mine connected to a TeleVideo terminal.
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| This is Oscar's (he is the creator) website:
| https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11
|
| 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.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I have Oscar's PiDP-8/I kit (it costs less).
|
| Also, from my communications with Oscar, he is a cool guy.
| fred_is_fred wrote:
| Seconded. This was super fun. I've never really built anything
| like this and had a few missteps, but got it working!
| rahen wrote:
| 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.
| A7C3D5 wrote:
| 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.
| shrubble wrote:
| 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).
| PopePompus wrote:
| 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.
| rahen wrote:
| 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.
| sillywalk wrote:
| 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.
| kjs3 wrote:
| _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.
| cameron_b wrote:
| 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
| mcmatterson wrote:
| I have this exact kit hosting my house's RPi server!
|
| 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
| dogman1050 wrote:
| I have a PDP-11/05 with 16KB core in my home lab. Haven't powered
| it up in a decade since getting rid of my Teletype ASR 33 for
| space reasons. I need to cobble up a 20mA current loop interface
| to talk to it. This PiDP-11 is much more energy-efficient, the
| /05 really heats up the room!
| Pet_Ant wrote:
| Is there any product that you can just plug a monitor and
| keyboard into and have a dumb terminal? Something much more
| dedicated and less than a RaspberryPi which is overkill for
| something so simple.
| shrubble wrote:
| There is the ESP32 based, VGA output, FabGL; you can make it
| yourself or buy it pre-assembled:
| https://www.lilygo.cc/products/fabgl-vga32
| irdc wrote:
| Incidentally, the DEC J-11 PDP-11-on-a-chip is still available[0]
| and can easily[1] be hooked up to other required hardware (I
| mean, the thing has a monitor/debugger built in, what's not to
| like?).
|
| 0. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=dcj11
|
| 1. https://5volts.ch/pages/pdp11hack/050-pdp11hack-cpu/
| ChicagoDave wrote:
| I got as far as running RSTS/E on a pi connected to a DECWriter
| III paper terminal. I never ordered the kit, though I wanted to.
| I was moving though and decided I'd exhausted my nostalgic needs.
|
| It's a fun moment playing DUNGEO and ADVENT on green bar again.
| cancerhacker wrote:
| I've got this and a few other[1] of emulation kits[2]; they're
| fun and fairly easy to assemble, blobby solder and all.
|
| [1] https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/ [2]
| https://adwaterandstir.com/altair/
| amelius wrote:
| Ah, those golden days when hardware companies made just hardware
| and were not after our data.
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(page generated 2023-11-28 23:00 UTC)