![[PDP-8 front panel]](8f_panel.jpg)
This page Last updated Nov 23 2012. To email me or to order, see
see my ordering Web page for my email addresses. My other DEC stuff is on this linked Web page.
My PDP-8/F which was acquired from Princeton University several years ago. I'm j-u-s-t starting to pay attention to it in early 2009, thanks to my colleague David Gesswein.
PDP-8/F case view from the top. IN this top inside view of my PDP-8/F, you can see I have one backplane of 20 slots (5 blocks of four slots). The front panel is in "front". Behind the backplane is the power supply, in its black box with a small white connector sticking out. Space to the side of the backplane is not photographed, it extends from the back of the hex-width front panel to the back of the case. Typically, for more boards, another "expansion box" with a quad-width or hex-width backplane and power supply would be attached to this chassis.
Cards in my PDP-8/F, front to back
-- KC8F? - programmer's console (lights and switches) -- M8330 - KK8E Timing board (system clock) -- M8340 \_ optional KE8E EAE board 1 -- M8341 / optional KE8E EAE board 2 -- M8310 \_ KK8E CPU control -- M8300 / KK8E CPU registers -- M837 - KM8E or MC8E extended Memory & Time Share control -- empty slot -- M8655 - RS-232, 9600 baud TTY control, UART -- empty -- "blue tabs" board, Data Systems Design (later Qualogy) DSD 2131A-5, see below -- empty -- brown tab board, no clear brand, analog data collection. -- M849 - KK8E RFI shield -- empty -- empty -- black tab board, CESI brand board, prbably VM816 16K? memory -- M8320 - KK8E Bus loads
Identifications above based on Omnibus Modules listing by Douglas Jones at the U.of Iowa. I've not verified the options (KKxx descriptions). A brief description of the 8/F Omnibus is at this Web site.
I attended the MARCH fix-it event on June-July 2012 and brought my PDP-8/F there. There was not time or opportunity, to do more than clean up my PDP-8/F, and invite some comments by David Gesswein who was also resident and working on 8's himself. As he did with the MARCH PDP-8, I removed cards and vacuumed my machine. David noted mine was in pretty good condition, with little of the rust and debris of MARCH's 8. I removed the foam pad under the top, which David noted as a potential source for corrosion, gunk and shorts.
this top_first photos shows the 8/F when first opened on-site. Photos of the 8/F top_before cleaning versus top_after cleaning , are a cautionary check to make sure the boards are in the same order. I only removed some cards, to vacuum out the slots. There was very little debris, only flaked-off foam from the lid. Here's close-up's of the slots and the worst of the debris as I vacuumed.
card_8300
card_8310
card_8320
card_8330
card_8340
card_8341
card_837
card_8655_back
card_8655_front
front panel back
On Oct 2012, I did more work on the 8/F. Looking around the switching supply, I was able to see an inside label. It dates the 8/F to Dec 1973 and confirms it was a "L.D.P market" system. P/L# 84?
Power supply photo of the BC20-a power controller panel, on the back of the cabinet.
Power supply photo of internal J1 connector
Power supply photo, back cover removedshowing the component side.
The component layout matches the layout in the H740 documentation.
Power supply photos of the 10A fuse and
Power supply photo the 15A fuse.
I have not examined it in detail. Here's some possibly relevant links. This PDP-8 FAQ entry says "The OMNI-8 operating system supported the enlarged PDP-8 address space of the CESI (Computer Extension Systems Inc) memory cards...". That led me to an UMN .edu IT department? Web site full of documents. NOte: in 2012 the link is inaccessable.
A document from umn.edu (University of Minnesota, USA) was a CESI VM816 product brochure. It describes a 4K to 16K memory board which looks like mine. Here's page one and here's page two.
The Non-DEC blue-tabs board I have in my 8/F is a "DSD 2131A-5" "PDP-8 Interface Board"
-- with blue paddles, quad width, all TTL small chips
-- one 20-pin connector w/9 active pins 10 gnds
-- device code 8,6,5,4,3 jumpered (device code 20? 57?)
THere are 5 rows of 8 or 9 TTL-type 14/16 pin chips. The 20-pin IDC connector has one row of ten grounded, the other row only 9 pins are in use. The text in quotes appears on the board.
According to a DSD 440/480 service manual, they made an 8-inch dual floppy controller which connected to PDP-11 or PDP-8 interface boards. The floppy controller for Shugart 800 or 850 drives was model 4440 or 4840, which used an Intel 8085 processor and a 12-bit 2911-based microcontroller.
David Gesswein of pdp8online.com says "[his own] controller is labled DSD A/2131-6. It looks like this is the controller for DSD [brand] 8" floppy drives." Here's David's page on the DSD product for the PDP-8. DSD's drive used an 8085 "formatter" board to run their drives via the DSD interface. Doug Jones's PDP8 site also mentions the DSD drives. Bitsavers has DSD manuals including a DS 440-480 series drive product manual, with a 2131 model PDP-8 interface board.
Quoting from Toby Russell on site pdp8.co.uk: "The PDP-8/M uses a H740 switch mode power supply that provides +15V @ 1A, +5V @ 17A, -15V @ 5A together with LTC-L, PWR OK L, PWK OK EN, AC LO L, and DC LO L signals. (It should be noted that not all of these signals are used within the PDP-8M). This power supply is also used within the 5.25? PDP-11/05 and PDP-11/10." I thought that H740 name sounded familiar....Toby "rebuilt" the caps by powering up for brief but increasingly longer periods of time. I may choose to pull the caps and charge them up separately. On Oct 2012, I coulda bought one on these on eBay "from a working environment" for $100 delivered.
In April 2009 at the Trenton Computer Festival, I picked up this PDP-8 version of the RX02 floppy drive, from Mike Connor of NY The photo is on-site at TCF. Just goes to show, you can still get serious computing iron at TCF!
The RX02 uses a RX8E (M8357) interface board for PDP-8 use, which I guess I have to find to use this drive. Apparenly it can also be configured for the PDP-11 with a M8256 Unibus interface.
Among my core memory collection, in May 2009 I stumbled across this pair: a H219A core memory card and attached G649A Core x-y driver & sense/inhibit card. Don't know if they work of course; and "pdp-8.org"'s list of modules says this pair is too slow for an 8/E" and presumably for my 8/F.
However Philipp Hachtmann of Germany, a PDP-8 owner tells me his Lab8/E is running a H219A on an extension box, and encourages me to consider similar options.
From the Web, I see that some other PDP-8's have:
# M865 - 20ma, 110 baud TTY control # M869 and M885 - Point plot display system # M840 - High speed paper tape reader and punch # G227, G619 and G104 - Core memory system, 4 k words (green handles) # G227, G619 and G104 - Core memory system, 4 k words (green handles) # M832 - Bus loads
I acquired a tape drive several years ago, that looked like a DECtape drive. Turns out, it's a LINCtape drive - part of a LINC system developed before the PDP-8. DEC incorporated some LINC features in early PDP-8 products including a LINC/8 dual system. Look over my LINCtape drive and some of the correspondence and help I've had about and with it.
Other DEC equipment I have is indexed on this DEC Web page.
Many thanks for the support and advice I've recieved from David Gesswein of pdp-8.net. His site is an enormously valuable resources, and he's personally helped me with my PDP-8 and PDP-11 efforts. He's a contributor (as I have been) to the MARCH Vintage computer museum at InfoAge in Wall NJ.
MARCH Vintage Computer Museum at InfoAge in Wall NJ has a growing collection of DEC equipment. That includes a "straight 8", the original Flip-Chip PDP-8; and a PDP-11/20, which I documented and interpreted for them some years ago.
The Rhode Island Computer Museum, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA has a number of PDP-8's in stages of restoration, among other computers. I've corresponded with them, and visited their facility several years ago.
Copyright © 2012 Herb Johnson
