[HN Gopher] PiDP-1, or the rebirth of an old machine
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PiDP-1, or the rebirth of an old machine
Author : ozymandiax
Score : 58 points
Date : 2025-04-05 18:06 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (hackaday.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (hackaday.io)
| aap_ wrote:
| As one of those guys in the photo I really hope everyone will
| have a lot of fun with this :)
|
| The photos don't show it but you can also have your PiDP-1 in
| white instead of blue. It will come with both sets of front
| panels.
| dddw wrote:
| The blue is amazing though!
| fragmede wrote:
| This looks fascinating! is there a link that would be a better
| intro to the project?
| prosaic-hacker wrote:
| There was this link on the page
| https://hackaday.io/project/202541-replica-of-the-
| pdp-1-pidp...
| fragmede wrote:
| Ah thanks. I didn't scroll down far enough
| aap_ wrote:
| In case you didn't see, the hackaday project page has two
| more links on the side, but currently information is a bit
| sparse, sorry. We're currently on a sprint to finish and
| polish the software distribution.
| jesuslop wrote:
| Wow, one of these should be at a museum or public institution.
| thaliaarchi wrote:
| I just built my PiDP-11 and would love to get one of these.
| dddw wrote:
| They want it to be an afforable kit. Indeed very nice to get
| your hands on one
| ozymandiax wrote:
| Yes, with the PiDP-10 we did a huge injection mold and it
| nearly killed us. Well, no, but we still have not recovered
| the investment. And it became an expensive thing, which
| limits the amount of people who want to play with one.
|
| So with the PiDP-1, we figured out how to make the entire
| case from FR4 panels. As there are no Iconic Curves in a
| PDP-1 case. Turns out this is the sturdiest PiDP yet!
|
| We hope to get some interest from the democoder community.
| Writing games and demos for the PDP-1's Type 30 display is so
| much more fun than pushing pixels on a C64 :-)
| rahen wrote:
| Can't wait to see the PiDP-1! By the way, something I'm
| really looking forward to is the KA-10 FPGA implementation
| for the PiDP-10, rather than the less realistic SIMH
| simulator running on top of Linux/Raspberry Pi. It would be
| a true miniaturized PDP-10 CPU, not just a simulation. Do
| you know if this is still being worked on?
| aap_ wrote:
| I have a bunch of KA10 verilog that worked on a DE10-nano
| in the past, but it's been quite a while and i think i
| have a bunch of uncommitted stuff lying around as well.
| The verilog is based on the original schematics and I
| successfully ran LISP and Spacewar on it. Unfortunately
| simulating peripherals is always a pain, so the project
| currently lies dormant. But i'd like to pick it up again
| at some point. I just really need to rethink my approach
| how to do this, qsys was maybe not the greatest way to
| wire up the system.
|
| https://github.com/aap/fpdpga/tree/master/ka10
| rahen wrote:
| It's exciting to hear that you've successfully run LISP
| and Spacewar on it, especially since the Verilog is based
| on the original schematics. That makes the PiDP-10 an
| actual KA-10 CPU, which is a big deal for authenticity.
|
| I completely understand the difficulty with simulating
| peripherals. Perhaps the FPGA could focus on implementing
| the CPU, leaving the peripherals to a SIMH backend using
| a hybrid approach. A slightly longer PCB with space for
| both a DE10-nano and an RPi 0 might work out well.
|
| Have you considered opening a discussion on VCFED or
| Google Groups to gather more ideas and see what others
| think? I'm sure many people would be excited to follow
| and contribute to that progress.
|
| I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.
| mrandish wrote:
| Someone had a PiDP-10 set up at the last Hacker's
| Conference. Damn it's a gorgeous machine. Your heroic
| efforts to recreate it in such spectacular fidelity are
| greatly appreciated by many!
| nyrikki wrote:
| I have so much fun with my PiDP-11 that this will have to go on
| the list.
|
| Does anyone know if MIDAS has been recreated for it or not?
|
| A bit of the hint on the PPT reader, which would be awesome, the
| rp2xxx chips PIO can handle that with ease. As the PDP1 doesn't
| have take-up it is pretty trivial to make at 'historic' speeds.
| Obviously punching is much more difficult.
|
| I looked into it for quite a bit, but not having access to tapes,
| puncher, supplies etc... I gave up on the idea as the PiDP-10
| will scratch my personal nostalgia itch a bit more right now.
| aap_ wrote:
| There are some versions of MIDAS around on bitsavers but I have
| to admit i haven't really looked into them much yet. Gotta
| leave something to the community, right? (or so i tell
| myself...). Another thing is that not all PDP-1s were the same
| and especially the PDP-1/X at MIT was a super hacked up
| version. Any code for that will not run my emulation (at least
| for now).
|
| A real tape reader would be great and is something we are
| considering for the future, but without a punch it's not very
| satisfying. There will be a paper tape visualization though
| (currently writing the code for that).
| Telemakhos wrote:
| The PiDP-1 and PiDP-10 are both absolutely gorgeous; while I'm
| glad to have modern keyboard and monitors and processors, I envy
| the past its style.
| drcongo wrote:
| I'd never heard of these things, but they really are beautiful.
| qingcharles wrote:
| OK, after reading this site I want to know more about the PDP-1
| demoscene.
| aap_ wrote:
| This is a good start: https://www.masswerk.at/minskytron/
|
| The pdp-1 "demoscene" has been rather inactive for ~6 decades
| now :) Our hope is to breathe some new life into it.
| qingcharles wrote:
| As an "old skool" demo coder, I'm impressed! I'm thinking
| with the vector display and the fall-off you could probably
| do some really fun stuff.
|
| Would be interesting to get some modern demo coders onto it
| to see what was possible.
| a4isms wrote:
| Delighted by the resemblance of the HN title to Tracy Kidder's
| Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "The Soul of a New Machine."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
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