![[PDP-8 front panel]](8f_panel.jpg)
My PDP-8/F which was acquired from Princeton University several years ago.In 2009 I started to pay attention to it in, thanks to my colleague David Gesswein. In May 2012 at a MARCH fix-it event, I opened it up and cleaned out most of the soft-foam cushioning and inspected the cards. In May 2013, David and I checked out the power supply, then the cards, and got the 8/f mostly running! Since then, I've acquired additional PDP-8 items, which are noted on this Web page.
This page Last updated June 16 2023. To email me or to order, see
see my ordering Web page for my email addresses. My other DEC stuff is on this linked Web page.
PDP-8/F case view from the top. IN this top inside view of my PDP-8/F, you can see I have one backplane of 20 slots (5 blocks of four slots). The front panel is in "front". Behind the backplane is the power supply, in its black box with a small white connector sticking out. Space to the side of the backplane is not photographed, it extends from the back of the hex-width front panel to the back of the case. Typically, for more boards, another "expansion box" with a quad-width or hex-width backplane and power supply would be attached to this chassis.
Cards in my PDP-8/F, front to back
-- KC8F? - programmer's console (lights and switches) -- M8330 - KK8E Timing board (system clock) -- M8340 \_ optional KE8E EAE board 1 -- M8341 / optional KE8E EAE board 2 -- M8310 \_ KK8E CPU control -- M8300 / KK8E CPU registers -- M837 - KM8E or MC8E extended Memory & Time Share control -- empty slot -- M8655 - RS-232, 9600 baud TTY control, UART -- empty -- "blue tabs" board, Data Systems Design (later Qualogy) DSD 2131A-5, see below -- empty -- brown tab board, no clear brand, analog data collection. -- M849 - KK8E RFI shield -- empty -- empty -- black tab board, CESI brand board, prbably VM816 16K? memory -- M8320 - KK8E Bus loads
Identifications above based on Omnibus Modules listing by Douglas Jones at the U.of Iowa. I've not verified the options (KKxx descriptions). A brief description of the 8/F Omnibus is at this Web site.
I attended the MARCH fix-it event on June-July 2012 and brought my PDP-8/F there. There was not time or opportunity, to do more than clean up my PDP-8/F, and invite some comments by David Gesswein who was also resident and working on 8's himself. As he did with the MARCH PDP-8, I removed cards and vacuumed my machine. David noted mine was in pretty good condition, with little of the rust and debris of MARCH's 8. I removed the foam pad under the top, which David noted as a potential source for corrosion, gunk and shorts.
this top_first photos shows the 8/F when first opened on-site. Photos of the 8/F top_before cleaning versus top_after cleaning , are a cautionary check to make sure the boards are in the same order. I only removed some cards, to vacuum out the slots. There was very little debris, only flaked-off foam from the lid. Here's close-up's of the slots and the worst of the debris as I vacuumed.
card_8300
card_8310
card_8320
card_8330
card_8340
card_8341
card_837
card_8655_back
card_8655_front
front panel back
On Oct 2012, I did more work on the 8/F. Looking around the switching supply, I was able to see an inside label. It dates the 8/F to Dec 1973 and confirms it was a "L.D.P market" system. P/L# 84?
Power supply photo of the BC20-a power controller panel, on the back of the cabinet.
Power supply photo of internal J1 connector
Power supply photo, back cover removedshowing the component side.
The component layout matches the layout in the H740 documentation.
Power supply photos of the 10A fuse and
Power supply photo the 15A fuse.
I have not examined the CESI in detail. Here's some possibly relevant links. This PDP-8 FAQ entry says "The OMNI-8 operating system supported the enlarged PDP-8 address space of the CESI (Computer Extension Systems Inc) memory cards...". That led me to a UMN .edu IT department's former Web site full of CESI documents. They are now archived as images courtesy of David Gesswein's PDP-8 Web site.
A document from umn.edu (University of Minnesota, USA) was a CESI VM816 product brochure. It describes a 4K to 16K memory board which looks like mine. Here's page one and here's page two.
When the 8/f was restored to operation in 2013, the board was operational, as a 16K memory card. It has 2141-4 RAM chips, no parity. In 2016, thanks to Jack Rubin, I obtained the CESI manual with schematics. Here's the CESI VM816 document.
A Non-DEC blue-tabs board I have in my 8/F is a "DSD 2131A-5" "PDP-8 Interface Board"
-- with blue paddles, quad width, all TTL small chips
-- one 20-pin connector w/9 active pins 10 gnds
-- device code 8,6,5,4,3 jumpered (device code 20? 57?)
THere are 5 rows of 8 or 9 TTL-type 14/16 pin chips. The 20-pin IDC connector has one row of ten grounded, the other row only 9 pins are in use. The text in quotes appears on the board.
According to a DSD 440/480 service manual, they made an 8-inch dual floppy controller which connected to PDP-11 or PDP-8 interface boards. The floppy controller for Shugart 800 or 850 drives was model 4440 or 4840, which used an Intel 8085 processor and a 12-bit 2911-based microcontroller.
David Gesswein of pdp8online.com says "[his own] controller is labled DSD A/2131-6. It looks like this is the controller for DSD [brand] 8" floppy drives." Here's David's page on the DSD product for the PDP-8. DSD's drive used an 8085 "formatter" board to run their drives via the DSD 13-line (26 pin) "I-bus" interface. Doug Jones's PDP8 site also mentions the DSD drives. Bitsavers has DSD manuals including a DS 440-480 series drive product manual, with a 2131 model PDP-8 interface board. apparently only the model 440 system with Shugart 800/801 was used with the Omnibus interface.
![[DSD 440]](8f_dsd_drive.jpg)
I acquired Nov 2020, a DSD 804840-02 rev G drive-side controller board. Thanks to David Gesswein who called this to my attention. This is the 8085-based drive controller board inside the DSD 440/480 drive chassis, which is operated by a PDP-11 (-01) or PDP-8 (-02) bussed DSD interface.
In June 2021 I was able to cable and test this board with a DSD drive chassis and power supply (from David Gesswein) and a pair of Shugart 800's from my own stocks. So David brought me his cabinet, and also a working DSD cabinet and controller. The controller has a local-test mode, no PDP-8 needed. I built flat-cables for the drives, and assembled and cross-tested both DSD units. David and I got mine working! It formatted a diskette, that someone else was able to read reliably on their PC-based floppy system. I'm grateful for David's help and equipment and his time.
The 804840 card has a 26-pin connector
to its host interface. There's a 26-pin cable on my drive cabinet to a connector on the back.
The PDP-8 2131A-5 I have, has a 20 pin connector. Documentation and schematics suggest that on the 26-pin side, three pairs of pins plus one are not connected
for the PDP-8 interface. I've confirmed this in the documents.
I did not look hard at this card until the 2013 restoration. Here's the ADAC board with modules. Closer examination identifies it as a adac corporation model 600-8e analog/digital card. The board has two adac brand modules. One is a das-12, 16 channel 12-bit analog to digital converter. The other is a adac brand PD-15 DC to DC voltage converter, probably supplying +15 volts for the A/D. There's a ribbon flat cable, presumably for the analog voltages.
Quoting from Toby Russell on site pdp8.co.uk: "The PDP-8/M uses a H740 switch mode power supply that provides +15V @ 1A, +5V @ 17A, -15V @ 5A together with LTC-L, PWR OK L, PWK OK EN, AC LO L, and DC LO L signals. (It should be noted that not all of these signals are used within the PDP-8M). This power supply is also used within the 5.25? PDP-11/05 and PDP-11/10." I thought that H740 name sounded familiar....Toby "rebuilt" the caps by powering up for brief but increasingly longer periods of time. I may choose to pull the caps and charge them up separately. On Oct 2012, I coulda bought one on these on eBay "from a working environment" for $100 delivered.
In May 2013, David Gesswein and I checked out the power supply, then the cards, and got the 8/f mostly running! The linked Web page tells it all.
In May 2013, I acquired a PDP-8/E chassis with power supply, backplane, AC switch. Also the front panel PC board. I discuss the 8/E chassis and powering it up, on my May 2013 8/F fix-it page.
![[toggles]](8e_panel_1.jpg)
I acquired a PDP-8/E front panel circuit board - no bezel, no panel. Here's a view of the chip and toggles side, and of course Here's a view of the back. Looking closely at the copper etch is the 8-E identification
PDP-8E FRONT PANEL CONTROL BOARD 6009056F 5409057". I'll see about repairs, including the rotary switch, and a nice front for it. In Dec 2021, I removed the broken rotary switch and considered replacement or repairs.
![[8/M]](8m_panel_was.jpg)
In June 2023, I acquired this PDP-8/M bezel and panel. There's some damage but mostly cosmetic. There's a crack in the acrylic at the corner of the DEP switch position. I'm hopeful to put this panel to use with other DEC parts. Possibly I'll add a transparent plex panel to protect and reinforce the panel. NOte the colors match the paddles on my front-panel board above. My good fortune.
I also have some PDP-8/A front panels, which I worked on with my PDP-8/A.
![[M833 Onmibus]](pdp8_m833.jpg)
In 2013 I purchased an 8330 KK8E Timing board and an 8300 KK8E CPU registers board. (I have an interrupt failure on my 8330 board.)
Also, I have a damaged KC8F or KC8E - programmer's console (front panel) board. In Aug 2019 I purchased a 830D board (predecessor to the 8300). In 2021 I purchased an 8320 terminator and an 8310 CPU board. All these need testing.
From the Web, I see that some other PDP-8's have:
# M865 - 20ma, 110 baud TTY control # M869 and M885 - Point plot display system # M840 - High speed paper tape reader and punch # G227, G619 and G104 - Core memory system, 4 k words (green handles) # G227, G619 and G104 - Core memory system, 4 k words (green handles) # M832 - Bus loads
In mid-2015 I acquired a number of non-DEC Omnibus boards. They operated a commercial sewing machine and a Phillips-cassette drive as data store. They are mostly TTL-class logics with various binary interfaces; quad-width and hex-width. I have some documentation for them, schematics. So I need to get to these and sort out how they may be useful as-they-are, or as modified, or for parts.
In April 2009 at the Trenton Computer Festival, I picked up this PDP-8 version of the RX02 floppy drive, from Mike Connor of NY The photo is on-site at TCF. Just goes to show, you still got some serious computing iron at TCF by 2009!
The RX02 uses a RX8E (M8357) interface board for PDP-8 use, which I'll have to find to use this drive. Apparenly the RX02 can also be configured for the PDP-11, supported with a M8256 Unibus interface.
Among my core memory collection, in May 2009 I stumbled across this pair: a H219A core memory card and attached G649A Core x-y driver & sense/inhibit card. Don't know if they work of course; and "pdp-8.org"'s list of modules says this pair is too slow for an 8/E" and presumably for my 8/F. In 2016 I worked on this and other cores on my PDP-8/A.
However Philipp Hachtmann of Germany, a PDP-8 owner tells me his Lab8/E is running a H219A on an extension box, and encourages me to consider similar options.
![[PDP-8 32k]](pdp8_sandahl32K.jpg)
So Vince Slyngstad and Stephen Lafferty developed a 32K RAM board for the Omnibus (PDP-8). Anders Sandahl made mods of the CAD files and produced several PC boards which have a large prototying area. I obtained two PC boards from Anders in April 2018. Here's a link to Anders' explanation,and here's a link to Vince's massive site.
AMong some DEC desktop computers I have a DECMate II which incorporates an Intersil 6100 PDP-8 compatible processor.
David Gesswein produced a video of operating a PDP-8/I, as part of an exhibit Web page I created on a PDP-11/20. The linked Web page has further descriptions.
I acquired a tape drive several years ago, that looked like a DECtape drive. Turns out, it's a LINCtape drive - part of a LINC system developed before the PDP-8. DEC incorporated some LINC features in early PDP-8 products including a LINC/8 dual system. Look over my LINCtape drive and some of the correspondence and help I've had about and with it.
Other DEC equipment I have is indexed on this DEC Web page.
Many thanks for the support and advice I've recieved from David Gesswein of pdp-8.net. His site is an enormously valuable resources, and he's personally helped me with my PDP-8 and PDP-11 efforts. He's a contributor (as I have been) to the MARCH Vintage computer museum at InfoAge in Wall NJ.
MARCH Vintage Computer Museum at InfoAge in Wall NJ has a growing collection of DEC equipment. That includes a "straight 8", the original Flip-Chip PDP-8; and a PDP-11/20, which I documented and interpreted for them some years ago.
The Rhode Island Computer Museum, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA has a number of PDP-8's in stages of restoration, among other computers. I've corresponded with them, and visited their facility several years ago.
I've chatted with Steve Lafferty, who acquired a PDP-8/M and restored it to operation. He's not put details of the 8/m restoration on his Web site, but he does have a RAM board project for the 8/M that's well described.
Copyright © 2023 Herb Johnson
