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I always wonder what personal computing might have been like had DEC not so greatly feared cannibalizing their mini/mainframe business. By the time they realize
by flyinghamster 7y ago
I always wonder what personal computing might have been like had DEC not so greatly feared cannibalizing their mini/mainframe business. By the time they realized their mistake, it was already way too late. If Digital had played its cards differently, x86 might have been just a footnote.
I found it very ironic that the biggest market for PDP-11-compatible micros was one not actually open to DEC: the Soviet Union.
- p_l 7y agoSoviet Union even made pocket computers that were electronically (not just software!) compatible with PDP-11 peripherals, if you dared to open the case and solder a connection. There are also rumours that around 1980, there was a design at Digital that could have led to a PDP-10 workstation, but Digital wanted to kill PDP-10.
- pinewurst 7y agoIt wasn't a rumor, it was the KT20 "Minnow". It was a workstation sans display. Given the memory addressing limits there were reasons why it was stillborn.
- p_l 7y agoI assume Minnow didn't use Model B addressing, then? My understanding was that Minnow was important step towards miniaturization of the PDP-10 line, in tandem with Jupiter (IIRC?) which spearheaded high cpu speed initiative...
- pinewurst 7y agoApparently I’m wrong about the address limits but it’s running on a really narrow microarchitecture with very limited (probably deliberately) performance.
- reaperducer 7y agoAnother massive market for PDP-11's was McDonald's. They ran the cash registers in a lot of the restaurants. I knew a guy who earned a living rehabbing PDPs that had done service in McDonald's. I guess they weren't always located in the best place in the building because said he spent most of his time cleaning the dried soda off of circuit boards.