catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  PDP-10
       
           Programmed Data Processor model 10.
       
          The series of mainframes from DEC that made time-sharing
          real.  It looms large in hacker folklore because of its
          adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing
          facilities and research labs, including the MIT AI Lab,
          Stanford, and CMU.  Some aspects of the instruction set
          (most notably the bit-field instructions) are still considered
          unsurpassed.
       
          The PDP-10 was eventually eclipsed by the VAX machines
          (descendants of the PDP-11) when DEC recognised that the
          PDP-10 and VAX product lines were competing with each other
          and decided to concentrate its software development effort on
          the more profitable VAX.  The machine was finally dropped from
          DEC's line in 1983, following the failure of the Jupiter
          Project at DEC to build a viable new model.  (Some attempts by
          other companies to market clones came to nothing; see Foonly
          and Mars.)  This event spelled the doom of ITS and the
          technical cultures that had spawned the original Jargon
          File, but by mid-1991 it had become something of a badge of
          honourable old-timerhood among hackers to have cut one's teeth
          on a PDP-10.
       
          See TOPS-10, AOS, BLT, DDT, DPB, EXCH, HAKMEM,
          JFCL, LDB, pop, push.
       
          news:alt.sys.pdp10
       
          [Was the PDP-10 a mini or a mainframe?]
       
          (2001-01-05)
       
       

  PDP-10 n. [Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine that made
     timesharing real. It looms large in hacker folklore because of its
     adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing facilities and
     research labs, including the MIT AI Lab, Stanford, and CMU. Some aspects
     of the instruction set (most notably the bit-field instructions) are
     still considered unsurpassed. The 10 was eventually eclipsed by the VAX
     machines (descendants of the PDP-11) when DEC recognized that the 10
     and VAX product lines were competing with each other and decided to
     concentrate its software development effort on the more profitable VAX.
     The machine was finally dropped from DEC's line in 1983, following the
     failure of the Jupiter Project at DEC to build a viable new model. (Some
     attempts by other companies to market clones came to nothing; see
     Foonly+and+Mars.)+This+event+spelled+the+doom+of+{ITS" rel="nofollow">Foonly and Mars.) This event spelled the doom of {ITS and the
     technical cultures that had spawned the original Jargon File, but by
     mid-1991 it had become something of a badge of honorable old-timerhood
     {TOPS-10" rel="nofollow">among hackers to have cut one's teeth on a PDP-10. See {TOPS-10,
     {ITS" rel="nofollow">{ITS, BLT, DDT, EXCH, HAKMEM, LDB, pop, push. See also
     `http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/'.