[HN Gopher] Father of the PDP-1: The TX-0, Transistorized EXperi...
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Father of the PDP-1: The TX-0, Transistorized EXperimental Computer
Zero (1956)
Author : Bluestein
Score : 28 points
Date : 2021-02-28 12:39 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| Bluestein wrote:
| Another interestingg source on the TX, the "father" of the DEC
| PDP-1:
|
| - "The Computer Pioneers: The TX-0" -
| https://ethw.org/Archives:The_Computer_Pioneers:_The_TX-0
| Bluestein wrote:
| "Designed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory largely as an experiment
| in transistorized design and the construction of very large core
| memory systems, the TX-0 was essentially a transistorized version
| of the equally famous Whirlwind, also built at Lincoln Lab. While
| the Whirlwind filled an entire floor of a large building, TX-0
| fit in a single reasonably sized room and yet was somewhat
| faster. Like the Whirlwind, the TX-0 was equipped with a vector
| display system, consisting of a 12" oscilloscope with a working
| area of 7 by 7 inches connected to the 18-bit output register of
| the computer, allowing it to display points and vectors with a
| resolution up to 512x512 screen locations.
|
| The TX-0 was an 18-bit computer with a 16-bit address range.
| First two bits of machine word designate instruction and
| remaining 16 bits are used to specify memory location or operand
| for special "operate" instruction. First two bits could create
| four possible instructions, which included store, add, and
| conditional branch instructions as a basic set. The fourth
| instruction, 'operate', took additional operands and allowed
| access to a number of 'micro-orders' which could be used
| separately or together to provide many other useful instructions.
| An 'add' instruction took 10 microseconds."
| Bluestein wrote:
| (Have got to say that I just realized that "Transistorized
| EXperimental Computer Zero"
|
| ... sounds totally like some Anime title or somethin' :)
| oblio wrote:
| Such a shame that several of these founding companies, such as
| DEC, didn't make it to the present day. I even miss Sun, up to a
| point.
| Bluestein wrote:
| Indeed.
|
| DEC, a shame.-
|
| ... and Sun! They -were- high end workstations in the 90's.-
|
| (There are several interesting features out there, about Sun
| ...)
|
| Hey, at least we are still using the result of their labors and
| innovation, in a sense, so, there's that :)
| tyingq wrote:
| Sun never seemed to be a leader in hardware, to me, but they
| were impressive in some software areas. Java, Solaris Zones,
| Dtrace, etc.
| ncmncm wrote:
| Sun was already drowning when Java, Zones, Dtrace, even ZFS
| came out. Not many knew it at the time. I can't say I did,
| but I remember thinking that they had a couple of billion
| dollars in cash left in the bank to build a future for
| themselves with. It seemed to me like it ought to be enough.
| gumby wrote:
| The pizza box was revolutionary in its time. Of course, as
| with so many complained, sun initially wasn't interested.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| Both companies suffered from top management clinging to former
| glory and not being able to see the writing on the wall. DEC,
| in particular, realized this too late and scrambled to get back
| in the game, but by then they were too far behind.
| Bluestein wrote:
| "The TX-0, for Transistorized Experimental computer zero, but
| affectionately referred to as tixo (pronounced "tix oh"), was an
| early fully transistorized computer and contained a then-huge 64K
| of 18-bit words of magnetic core memory. Construction of the TX-0
| began in 1955 and ended in 1956. It was used continually through
| the 1960s at MIT. The TX-0 incorporated around 3600 Philco high-
| frequency surface-barrier transistors, the first transistor
| suitable for high-speed computers. The TX-0 and its direct
| descendant, the original PDP-1, were platforms for pioneering
| computer research and the development of what would later be
| called computer 'hacker' culture."
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