OCM 1959.1
PDP-1
DEC's first computer, and the machine that gave rise to Spacewar!, one of the earliest video games.
- Object type
- Minicomputer
- Maker
- Digital Equipment Corporation
- Introduced
- 1959
- In the collection as
- Emulator in preparation
The emulator is still being reconstructed. It opens when it can run the original software.
About this machine
The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) was Digital Equipment Corporation's first computer, introduced in 1959. Designed for interactivity at a time when most computers were batch-processing machines, it used a CRT display and could be operated directly by a single person at the console. Its most famous legacy is Spacewar!, written by MIT students in 1962, widely regarded as one of the first digital video games.
In the installation
- Operator console
- Rows of lamps show the registers bit by bit. Toggle switches set addresses and data, and the sense switches pass options to a running program.
- Paper tape reader
- A photoelectric reader for punched paper tape, the usual way to load a program.
- Type 30 display
- A point-plotting CRT. Spacewar! was written for it in 1962.
- Console typewriter
- A modified IBM electric typewriter used for keyboard input and printed output.
Where to see one
- Nearest to you
- ~
- Working
- 1 of 3
- Computer History Museum Mountain View, California 1 of 3 running
