PDP-6 The PDP-6 (Programmed Data Processor-6) was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1963. It was influential primarily as the prototype (effectively) for the later PDP-10; the instruction sets of the two machines are almost identical. Worldwide, only 23 PDP-6's were sold, the smallest number of any DEC machine, but DEC management still considered the system useful because those sales were to technical leaders such as universities. That gave DEC a number of advantages, including a foothold in that market, access to advice on future technical direction from a group of advanced and technically knowledgeable users, and finally a source of intelligent young employees as the business grew. It used a 36-bit word length, and had a maximum memory capacity of 262,144 words (256 Kibiwords), although many systems were installed with only 32,768 words of core memory (equivalent to 160 Kbytes on modern machines). The system included discrete-transistor "fast accumulators" which substituted for the first 16 words of core memory but operated four times faster. The PDP-6 supported time sharing through the use of a status bit selecting between two operating modes ("Executive" and "User", with access to I/O, etc, being restricted in the latter), and a set of "base and bounds" registers which allowed a user's address space to be limited to a set section of main memory. The Boston Computer Museum at one time had a PDP-6 in their collection, however its fate is unknown. Most of the BCM's collection was moved to Mountain View, California to form the Computer Museum History Center, which is now the Computer History Museum, but the PDP-6 was not present. There is no known surviving PDP-6. References Bell, C. Gordon, Mudge, J. Craig, McNamara John E. "The PDP-10 Family". (1979). Part V of Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design. Digital Equipment Corp. Most Popular Articles: Music    Musical Instruments    Guitar    Classical Music    History    Music Definition    Country Music    Rock Music    Pop Music    Hip Hop    Rap    DJ    Video Games    Casino Games    Poker    Blackjack    Casinos    Real Estate    Loan    Auction    eBay    Marketing    Search Engine Optimization    File Sharing    MP3    Music Industry    Kazaa    Internet    Supermodel    Fashion    Fashion Designers    Erotica    Modeling    Clothing    Boots    Shoes    Diamond Engagement Rings    Diamond    Rugs    Gospel Music    Affiliate    E-Commerce    Radio This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-6