I've previously written about using simulation and buying replica kits as a more attainable way of getting hands-on time with retro computers that are rare. This article is two years old (as of this writing), and since then I've built another PPD-8 like system and Oscar Vermeulen's PiPD-11 (in Mid 2023). I still think these kits are a great way to learn about old systems. The learning continues with Oscars newest kit, the PiPD-10.
As soon as I heard about the PiDP-10 project I was excited. I've known something of the original Hacker culture since reading the Jargon file online in the early 2000s and I've had a copy of the "New Hackers Dictionary" since then. My college, the Milwaukee School of Engineering had Digital Equipment Corporation VAX machines when I was there in the 1990s. I'm sure that without being conscious of it I was exposed too and adopted a midwestern version of Hacker culture as it existed there in the late 1990s.
I've been anticipating Oscar's new machine for quite a while. During the wait I read Steven Levy's book "Hackers". This is a book that describes longer periods of the history of computing, but it has chapters focused on the people and the culture of the MIT AI Lab in the early days of computing in the 1960s that I had not read much about before. This is the time period of the PDP10. Even though the ITS system did not become prominent and is not a direct predecessor to the Operating Systems of today, so many of the people who worked on it and the ideas behind it have been incorporated into today's software.
But enough background and back to modern times. I got into the PiDP10 Google Group for conversation about PiDP-10 and I asked to be added to Oscar's "expression of interest" list as soon as the Beta test period ended. My PiDP10 Kit arrived in mid April 2024. I build the kit on the first weekend after it arrived. The build went pretty well. The biggest challenge that I had was damage around a trace that I caused by not being careful with a component, but once I repaired the broken trace all the LEDs worked as expected. It was a long build but well documented as usual for one of Oscars kits. The PiPD10 looks great and since it has some graphical elements I'm going to keep it in a place of honor on the shelf above my desk where I can also keep it plugged into a Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse...
The next step for me after building the kit was a challenge. Not knowing anything about ITS I really needed the manual to make progress. At one point I'd thought the system wasn't coming up because I'd corrupted the file systems so I re-installed a fresh image on the Pi and went through the entire install procedure again, But that was not the root issue, I just didn't know how to bring up ITS.
Oscar published a draft version of the manual in the PiDP10 Google Group shortly after my kit was built and with that I was able to bring up ITS on the simulated hardware and begin a bit of happy hacking! I haven't had much time with the system yet, but having it convenient at my desk will make it easy to go back and explore what it was like to use a computer back in an era when having computer access was not a part of normal life for people. I'm looking forward to that!
Let me know in the comments, or send an email if you have memories or a connection to Hacker culture. Also let me know if you have suggested about the ITS or TOPS operating systems and things that I should try on the PiPD10. Thanks!
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