pdp8/a
<<< >>> ^^^
| Manufacturer: | Digital Equipment Corp. |
| Type: | PDP-8/A |
| Year: | 1976 |
| Technology: | MSI/SSI-TTL-technology magnetic core memory, optional semiconductor memory |
The PDP8/A again shows the progress in semiconductor technology at that time. The size of the printed circuit bords needed for the CPU could be cut to half. The PDP8/E needed 3 quad size boards, where the PDP8/A CPU now only needs one hex board. The size of the memory board also needs only one board.
Additionally there was optional semiconductor memory available, an additional option was battery buffering of this memory, because semi- conductor memory has no data retention if the machine is powered down.
The picture shows the frontpanel where the switchregister and the display is replaced by an octal keyboard and 7-segment display. The machine is running, the address displayed is part of the idle loop of OS/8 operatingsystem.