Running 4K FORTRAN on a DEC PDP-8
Written by Lawrence Woodman on 14th July 2009
Tags: DEC, Fortran, PDP-8, Programming, Retro, Tutorials
4K FORTRAN was a subset of FORTRAN II and was the first high-level language available for the DEC PDP-8.  It consisted of two parts: the 4K FORTRAN Compiler (nicknamed "Fivetran") and the 4K FORTRAN Operating System.  The compiler was written by Larry Portner and the operating system was written by Henry Burkhardt.  The introduction of this compiler made the PDP-8 much easier to program and was particularly useful to those using the machine for scientific calculations.  Below is a guide to using 4K FORTRAN.

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A Quickstart Guide to Editing Paper Tape with the Symbolic Tape Editor on the DEC PDP-8
Written by Lawrence Woodman on 16th June 2009
Tags: DEC, Editors, PDP-8, Retro, Tutorials
Before re-writable storage devices, such as tape drives, become popular for the DEC PDP-8, owners had to rely on paper tape.  This was fine for loading programs on pre-punched tape, but left the problem of how to put new data onto punched tape and how to edit existing data.  This could be done off-line, but a better way was to use DEC's Symbolic Editor.  This made life much easier as it allowed you to interactively edit a tape in a buffer, check the alterations and then output a new tape.  This editor was used for quite a few years by those wanting to edit Assembly or FORTRAN source code.  What follows is a brief introduction to using this editor.

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Emulating a DEC PDP-8 with SimH
Written by Lawrence Woodman on 26th May 2009
Tags: DEC, Emulation, PDP-8, Retro, SimH, Tutorials
The DEC PDP-8 mini-computer was launched on 22 March 1965 and was a great success.  It was fairly cheap for the day and could easily be expanded.  What attracts me most to the PDP-8 is its simple design.  I therefore decided to experiment with the SimH emulation of this machine, but found that the documentation wasn't always straightforward.  This article intends to show how easy SimH is and how powerful it can be.

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PDP 8 in 'Three Days of the Condor'
Written by Lawrence Woodman on 14th October 2008
Tags: Computers in Movies, DEC, PDP-8, Retro
Picture of a PDP 8/E from Three Days of the Condor I watched 'Three Days of the Condor' the other night and loved seeing what I believe is a Dec PDP 8/E being used.  Also featured in connection with this machine was a DecWriter, paper tape reader and possibly a VT-52 video terminal.

The film revolves around a CIA researcher, Robert Redford, finding out about a secret section within the CIA, and their attempts to silence him.


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