pdp-10

2 definitions found

pdp-10 - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  PDP-10
  
     <computer> Programmed Data Processor model 10.
  
     The series of mainframes from DEC that made time-sharing
     real.  It looms large in hacker folklore because of its
     adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing
     facilities and research labs, including the MIT AI Lab,
     Stanford, and CMU.  Some aspects of the instruction set
     (most notably the bit-field instructions) are still considered
     unsurpassed.
  
     The PDP-10 was eventually eclipsed by the VAX machines
     (descendants of the PDP-11) when DEC recognised that the
     PDP-10 and VAX product lines were competing with each other
     and decided to concentrate its software development effort on
     the more profitable VAX.  The machine was finally dropped from
     DEC's line in 1983, following the failure of the Jupiter
     Project at DEC to build a viable new model.  (Some attempts by
     other companies to market clones came to nothing; see Foonly
     and Mars.)  This event spelled the doom of ITS and the
     technical cultures that had spawned the original Jargon File
     , but by mid-1991 it had become something of a badge of
     honourable old-timerhood among hackers to have cut one's teeth
     on a PDP-10.
  
     See TOPS-10, AOS, BLT, DDT, DPB, EXCH, HAKMEM,
     JFCL, LDB, pop, push.
  
     news:alt.sys.pdp10
  
     [Was the PDP-10 a mini or a mainframe?]
  
     (2001-01-05)
  

pdp-10 - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  PDP-10
   n.
  
     [Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine that made
     timesharing real. It looms large in hacker folklore because of its
     adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing facilities and
     research labs, including the MIT AI Lab, Stanford, and CMU. Some
     aspects of the instruction set (most notably the bit-field
     instructions) are still considered unsurpassed. The 10 was eventually
     eclipsed by the VAX machines (descendants of the PDP-11) when
     DEC recognized that the 10 and VAX product lines were competing
     with each other and decided to concentrate its software development
     effort on the more profitable VAX. The machine was finally dropped
     from DEC's line in 1983, following the failure of the Jupiter Project
     at DEC to build a viable new model. (Some attempts by other companies
     to market clones came to nothing; see Foonly and Mars.) This
  event
     spelled the doom of ITS and the technical cultures that had spawned
     the original Jargon File, but by mid-1991 it had become something of
  a
     badge of honorable old-timerhood among hackers to have cut one's
  teeth
     on a PDP-10. See TOPS-10, ITS, BLT, DDT, EXCH, HAKMEM,
     pop, push. See also http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/.