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PDP-8 "odds and ends" page.                         

Here is my bootable IDE disk volume for Bob Armstrong's WinEight simulator and SBC6120 computer:

          NEWSYS.ide

Its Digital (DEC) OS/8 system has been built with support for the RK8E (RK05, .rk5) and RX8E (RX01, .rx1) disk systems, so that you may open RK05 and RX01 images on WinEight and then freely access them from this volume. That way, you may easily gather OS/8 programs from the World Wide Web (RK05 and RX01 disk images are plentiful out there!), and copy them  onto this or any other IDE volume.

Digital has graciously granted a non-exclusive, non-commercial license for use of OS/8:

          LICENSE.doc

I have gathered  some pictures of the DEC PDP-8e/f/m, showing a few of the  color schemes I have seen for these units.

pdp8e.jpg
This is an overexposed  picture of the stock PDP-8e.  The colors are "amber" and "terra cotta,"
according to DEC.  You have to feel sorry for the poor DECwriter terminal underneath it; the -8e
weighs about 80 pounds!

pdp8m.jpg
This is the PDP-8m.  It has colors like those of the PDP-8e,  but with a somewhat different graphics
arrangement surrounded by a large white border.  The PDP-8f is identical in appearance.

The differences between the PDP-8f/m and the earlier PDP-8e are that the -8f/m has a shorter cabinet, a switch-mode power supply, and red LEDs rather than incandescent lamps in the front panel or "programmer's console."  The CPU is identical to that of the -8e.

lab8e.jpg
The Lab-8e is a PDP-8e with a startling lime-green color scheme!


blue8e.jpg
Here's a pretty machine; a PDP-8 with a *blue* front panel!  This unit appears to be
something of a hodgepodge;  it has graphics like the -8f/m,  but the cabinet is that
of an -8e (deep, with the big linear power supply and room for two Omnibus backplanes).


6120.jpg
Finally (BRAG!), here is my implementation of Bob's SBC/FP 6120.  It's mounted in a Hammond rack-mount enclosure.
Believe it or not, the knob on the front panel  came from a real DEC PDP-8e!

Copyright TimeFracture 2006.