Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941
The PiDP-11 is a modern replica of the PDP-11/70.
Introduced in 1973, the 11/70 was top of the line in the famed PDP-11 range, and the very last system with a proper front panel. Tragically, DEC field service often removed the front panel in a later upgrade, leaving us staring at dull blank panels ever since..
The PiDP-11 wants to bring back the experience of PDP-11 Blinkenlights, with its pretty 1970s Magenta/Red color scheme. On a more modest (living room compatible) scale 6:10, with faithfully reproduced case and switches.
The tabs above describe the PiDP in more detail. The web already contains lots of PDP-11 information, so these pages just focus on the practical PiDP aspects: how to build, operate and possibly hack the PiDP-11. The 'why' question will not be addressed here, only fools would think that PDP-11s are somehow obsolete.
Source: http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by PiMuNu on Friday May 18 2018, @04:06PM (8 children)
I read TFA and I still don't know what it is.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @04:38PM (7 children)
It's the very beginning of the damn article (summary).
(Score: 0, Troll) by PiMuNu on Friday May 18 2018, @05:25PM (6 children)
> PDP-11/70
That didn't help.
(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 18 2018, @05:36PM (3 children)
A miniskirt is a VERY SMALL skirt. And when a girl wears one it's very sexy. As everybody knows. Well, this is a minicomputer. Which is a VERY SMALL computer. And to certain people, I guess, it's sexy. Let me tell you, it would be much sexier with a couple of girls in miniskirts!!
(Score: 4, Informative) by tangomargarine on Friday May 18 2018, @07:32PM
For whatever chucklenuts modded this "Informative," minicomputers [wikipedia.org] are actually a good deal larger than your average PC because this was back in the time before miniaturization had gotten computers so small as today--the 60s and 70s.
We're talking about a computer the size of a refrigerator (including storage). It's only "mini" compared to a full-sized mainframe the size of a whole room.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @01:11AM
"A miniskirt is a VERY SMALL skirt. And when a girl wears one it's very sexy. [...]"
Yeah, right. In the USofA, a 'miniskirt' is considered part of a law enforcement uniform.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Sunday May 20 2018, @11:27PM
Unfortunately DEC never went further than sensible, business-length skirts [pinimg.com] in their sales literature.
(Score: 3, Informative) by epitaxial on Saturday May 19 2018, @01:41AM (1 child)
Turn in your geek card if you don't know anything about Digital Equipment Corp.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday May 21 2018, @09:00AM
Gah, it messed up my Geek Card! Double tap.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Unixnut on Friday May 18 2018, @04:07PM (5 children)
> Source: http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11 [wixsite.com]
The irony, an article about obsolescence leading me to a "website" which is nothing but a blank page unless you fully enable javascript. Which when you do, just shows a standard website which could have been coded in plain HTML without any JS at all.
"Progress", eh?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @05:04PM
Yeah, it's pretty awful.
At least some of the content is there though, just hidden by styles (I guess the scripts restyle the page?). So if you disable styles as well (or use a text-mode browser which doesn't support styles) then there is at least _something_ to read.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @05:06PM
The page looks perfect in Lynx.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Friday May 18 2018, @07:13PM (1 child)
Annnd it turns out this is just a case for a raspberry pi.
<raspberry>
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday May 18 2018, @08:48PM
A $250 case for a Raspberry Pi. Although admittedly one that causes me to salivate a bit, just like $660 for a replica Altair 8800.
But for those prices.... right now eBay is offering a Model III TRS-80 case for $169. And even that is too much for me but is the nostalgic choice I'd buy to casemod something from.
Looked cool, anyway.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday May 18 2018, @08:46PM
It works fine in Lynx.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Friday May 18 2018, @04:17PM
It's clear the publisher doesn't think incompetence is obsolete - quite the contrary, it's all the rage just now!
It's a shame. The PDP-11 was a great machine, a historical machine. What did it do to now be associated with such brain damage?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Redundant) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday May 18 2018, @07:44PM
I don't recall who makes them. They are 5 1/4 heat sinks for 3 1/2 drives. They have two small fans and an led display that alternates between the drive temp and the ambient temp
You can set a switch for metric C or the Great American F
"I like your blood nkenlights" said Thomas. I had an extra so I put it in his fridge
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Touché) by Roo_Boy on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:39PM
Strange, I seem to recall the late 90's still working with several HP-1000's and pretty sure those switches on the front panel for switching the registers and with those LEDs on the front panel for displaying the results would mean it had, wait, a PROPER FRONT PANEL?!?.
Sometimes I do get nostalgic about those machines, but then I remember having to code the bootstrap in binary and soon recover.
http://www.hpmuseum.net/exhibit.php?class=3&cat=33 [hpmuseum.net] For details.
--- The S.I. prototype "Average Punter" is kept in a tube of inert gas in Geneva.