On Nov 22, 2020, at 04:01 PM, Chris Hanson via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Does anyone know of anyone building them for sale? I dont need a real PDP-8 in my life with all my other hardware (more Q-bus PDP-11, on the other hand) but Id love having *a* PDP-8, especially one that doesnt require enormous amounts of power.
Hi Chris, There's a few options in this regard, in increasing degrees of "realness" (and cost!) depending on how you define it. 1) The PiDP-8 by Oscar Vermeulen - Raspberry Pi based 8/i replica running SIMH in a miniaturised case. https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-8 2) The SBC6120 - Originally by Spare Time Gizmos, but now re-released by the RetroBrew Computers community. This is a 6120 based PDP-8/e replica, with optional front panel. (the panel doesn't appear to be made "officially" anymore, as the design files are missing, but a Russian company appears to have copied it. (I have the Russian version but have yet to assemble it.) https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=boards:sbc:sbc6120-rbc-edition:start http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardware/SBC6120-2.htm https://chipkin.ru/product/pechatnye-platy-dec-pdp-8-e/ 3) The LD12 / LD20 by Franklin Prosser and David E. Winkel - This is a TTL based clone of a PDP-8/i, originally devised as part of an exercise in the book "The Art of Digital Design An Introduction to Top Down Design" in the early 80s. A few people on vcfed.org have built their own based on these designs, and daver2 has made a run of PCBs (wirewrapped!) http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?74125 4) Vince Slyngstad of so-much-stuff.com has scanned many PDP-8 boards and re-created them in Eagle CAD software. I know he's been working on re-creating the 8/e CPU recently but AFAIK it's not finished yet. There are however many OMNIBUS peripheral cards, and a board that combines 32KW of battery backed RAM with a boot ROM. Roland Huisman has also re-created the RX8E floppy controller, and has made an RX02 emulator to go with it, so if you lack an RX01/2 drive you can still have something to boot off. Kyle Owen has also created a neat bit of software that allows you to use a spare serial port and a *NIX system to simulate an RK05. So with all this, it should in theory be possible to build your own 8/e class system soon enough if you can find all the parts for it. http://so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/cad/boards.php https://github.com/Roland-Huisman https://github.com/drovak/os8diskserver Regards, -Tom mo...@sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org
