3 Aug
2024
3 Aug
'24
3:34 a.m.
On Fri, Aug 2, 2024 at 10:59 AM Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
In the early 1980s, as DEC started to de-commit to the
36-bit line after
they introduced the 32-bit Vax systems, a number of PDP-10 clones appeared
on the market. For instance, the System Concepts SC-40 was what
Comp-U-Serve primarily switched to. Similarly, many ex-Stanford AI types
forked to create the Toad Systems XXL, a KL10 clone. SDF and LCM+L owned
several of these two styles of systems and were on display and available
for login. Since Twenex.org is live (and has been) and Stephen shows a
picture of the SC40, again, I am (again) >>guessing<< that these have all
been moved to the new location for SDF.
There was also Foonly, founded by one of the researcher's on SAIL's
DARPA-funded Super Foonly project to build a faster successor to DEC's
PDP-10 KA10 processor. When DARPA cut the funding, many of the engineers
on Super Foonly went to DEC and helped design the KL-10 PDP-10 processor.
Dave Poole founded Foonly Inc. Their first machine, the F1, was a 4.5 MIPS
PDP-10 implementation, but only one was ever built. Foonly survived for a
while making cheap PDP-10 clones, but it was done in when DEC cancelled the
Jupiter project, thus effectively ending the life of the PDP-10 line of
processors.
-Paul W.