3 ms·

> And yet TOPS-10 was fairly advanced back in the sixties. first release 1970, according to wikipedia. > It's fairly hard nowadays to find 36 bits machines s

> And yet TOPS-10 was fairly advanced back in the sixties. first release 1970, according to wikipedia. > It's fairly hard nowadays to find 36 bits machines still running, true. one of our system programmers looked at buying our Dec10 but power supply and cooling problems defeated him - it was eventually sold for scrap.

TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
It would take unusual dedication, plenty of space, and a huge budget for electricity and air con to run a KL10 at home. I understand the attraction, because they were very popular with users - partly because TOPS-10 was relatively intuitive and could be learned by almost anyone, and timesharing was very much an experience of personal computing. That was a huge deal when most computing still had to go through operators and other expert intermediaries. TOPS-20 was more refined and tried to be even friendlier, with nice features like command completion. Neither was at all UNIXy - a good thing IMO.
- zabzonk 3y ago
  he was prepared to sacrifice his 2-car garage, but i think the three-phase and other electrics defeated him. of couurse, it wouldn't have been switched on anywhere near all the time. and his girlfriend wasn't keen. perhaps a bit too big for a hobby project?
shrubble 3y ago
If I remember correctly the DEC supplied power supplies were hugely inefficient, and CompuServe redesigned the power supplies since they were using so many of these systems.
aap_ 3y ago
> first release 1970, according to wikipedia. Under that name. It goes back to the PDP-6 monitor, 1964.
WalterBright 3y ago
I have good memories of playing Star Trek all night on a DECwriter connected to a -10.
- zabzonk 3y ago
  i have good memories of playing empire :-)
rahen 3y ago
Such a shame. Did he try to contact a local museum maybe? I'm looking forward to have PiDP10 but seeing a real one, especially a KA-10, would be a bit of a dream.

TheOtherHobbes 3y ago

It would take unusual dedication, plenty of space, and a huge budget for electricity and air con to run a KL10 at home. I understand the attraction, because they were very popular with users - partly because TOPS-10 was relatively intuitive and could be learned by almost anyone, and timesharing was very much an experience of personal computing. That was a huge deal when most computing still had to go through operators and other expert intermediaries. TOPS-20 was more refined and tried to be even friendlier, with nice features like command completion. Neither was at all UNIXy - a good thing IMO.

zabzonk 3y ago
he was prepared to sacrifice his 2-car garage, but i think the three-phase and other electrics defeated him. of couurse, it wouldn't have been switched on anywhere near all the time. and his girlfriend wasn't keen. perhaps a bit too big for a hobby project?

shrubble 3y ago

If I remember correctly the DEC supplied power supplies were hugely inefficient, and CompuServe redesigned the power supplies since they were using so many of these systems.

aap_ 3y ago

> first release 1970, according to wikipedia. Under that name. It goes back to the PDP-6 monitor, 1964.

WalterBright 3y ago

I have good memories of playing Star Trek all night on a DECwriter connected to a -10.

zabzonk 3y ago
i have good memories of playing empire :-)

rahen 3y ago

Such a shame. Did he try to contact a local museum maybe? I'm looking forward to have PiDP10 but seeing a real one, especially a KA-10, would be a bit of a dream.