PiDP-10 @ Tech-Splore April 26th w/ Altair BASIC simulation

[Stephen Jones]

If you are in the Atlanta area come by and say "hello" at the MIMMS Museum of Technology and Art.  SDF will have a table during Tech-Splore April 26th from 10am-5pm and I'll be demoing the PiDP-10 sn 0000 running an 8080 simulator with Altair BASIC as well as ITS and ways to access the various SDF's remote vintage systems.  I'll also have some free SDF swag at the table.

(KA10 sn 156 courtesy of SDF Vintage Systems)

[Richard C]

Wonder how many serial number 0000 there are. I have one too :-)

Rich

[Tim Radde]

I have one too.  :)

[steve...@gmail.com]

Is it possible to get the source code so we can run that simulator on our own PiDP-10?

-- steve

[Tim Radde]

If you have a Rasp Pi 4 or 5 you should be fine. Not sure how well it would run on anything less.  You don't have to have the kit to run Simh on a Pi.  That's all you really need.

Go to https://obsolescence.dev/pidp-10-building-instructions.html and perform step 1 to get and install the software.  Without a front panel you will have to start and stop it from the command line.  Make sure you set up ssh to your Pi so you have access.  Give that a try and let us know if it worked  If not we can surely help you get it running.

Best of luck and enjoy.

[Tim Radde]

Perhaps I spoke before re-reading the original. Are you asking about the Altair simulator?  If so I don't know.  I know Simh has an Altair simulator, but this sounds like one the runs on the TOPS-10 or ITS.

[Flavio Villanustre]

Let me add to the confusion: perhaps we misread the original announcement and thought that someone had brought back the original PDP-10 emulator that Bill Gates and Paul Allen used to create Micro Soft Basic. I am planning to visit the museum on Saturday already, and hoped to ask this question while there, but since others are asking here, I thought I would add my question too.

I have a PiDP-10 and I have an Altair 8800 replica here. I run Micro Soft Basic on the Altair and ITS on the PiDP-10. But is there something I'm missing? :)

Thanks,

Flavio Villanustre

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[Tim Radde]

Hah Flavio you brought up an excellent point.  I didn't even think of that.  That would be cool to run that if it exists.

[Lars Brinkhoff]

fvilla...@gmail.com wrote:

Let me add to the confusion: perhaps we misread the original announcement and thought that someone had brought back the original PDP-10 emulator that Bill Gates and Paul Allen used to create Micro Soft Basic. I am planning to visit the museum on Saturday already, and hoped to ask this question while there, but since others are asking here, I thought I would add my question too.

I'm curious about the answer you'll get.

[Jeff Spears]

Hello SDF.org--I am a big fan and a member. Good to see a PiDP-10 in your backpack. Wish I was back in Seattle!

[Lars Brinkhoff]

Hello SDF.org--I am a big fan and a member. Good to see a PiDP-10 in your backpack. Wish I was back in Seattle!

Fans can support SDF's Interim Computer Museum:

https://icm.museum/join.html

They have lots of PDP-10 goodies on their premises.  I'm a JSYS member myself.

[Stephen Jones]

Thanks Lars -

We're opening Sundays and Mondays for our members and have about 36 exhibits currently on display, most you

can interact with including 3 player SPACEWAR! on an Imlac PDS-1.  Thank you to those for supporting SDF in this

effort and we look forward to sharing pictures with our "Adopt a Computer" campaign.  MIT-MC (sn 1038 a KL10 1080)

is the first on this list and we hope to document every modification, board and scrap of paper (including fortunes

from Mary Chungs) taped to it.

Speaking of MC, check out the DYMO labels on the console.  

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[oscarv]

Hi,

On Monday, April 21, 2025 at 3:44:58 PM UTC+2 timr...@gmail.com wrote:

I have one too.  :)

No, you don't! In our hurry to send out the first (or second, I forget) batch, we did not write the serial numbers for a few of the early machines. But Jose has them for you (j.l...@ceds.dev), all it takes is a Sharpie pen to  mark your machine approprately :-)

My brain is a bit fuzzy, I forgot who actually has #0? But #1000 was produced last month! Which is great news, as the injection mold has been earned back now, and we have our budget back for another ambitious project that needs it. Although honestly, I don't wish to go through another injection mold torture process...

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[Tim Radde]

What I meant was mine has no serial number as this other person seems to have this problem too.  I don't really care as I might mess it up trying to write it as sometimes my hand decides to shake at inopportune times.  More curious than anything just what number mine was supposed to be.  Good that you have recovered your injection molding costs.  Thanks for an excellent kit.

[Lars Brinkhoff]

Oscar wrote:

we have our budget back for another ambitious project that needs it. Although honestly, I don't wish to go through another injection mold torture process...

Aw, that doesn't bode well for the PiDP-12!

I would like to look into keyboards: Knight and SAIL.  Getting custom made keycaps is the main blocker. 

[Peter Long]

Did the Maintenance Panel project ever get started ?

Peter

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From: pid...@googlegroups.com <pid...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Lars Brinkhoff <lars.br...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, 22 May 2025 14:53
To: PiDP-10 <pid...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [pidp-10] Re: PiDP-10 @ Tech-Splore April 26th w/ Altair BASIC simulation

 

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[Guy Sotomayor]

I’ve been looking into keyboards as well (SAIL, Symbolics, IBM 3270, etc) and keycaps seem to be the main issue (there’s a great website for generating keyboard layouts).  I’m seriously thinking about a 3d printer for generating the keycaps but that’s strictly a low volume solution.

TTFN - Guy

On May 21, 2025, at 9:53 PM, Lars Brinkhoff <lars.br...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Lars Brinkhoff]

Guy Sotomayor wrote:

I’ve been looking into keyboards as well (SAIL, Symbolics, IBM 3270, etc) and keycaps seem to be the main issue (there’s a great website for generating keyboard layouts).  I’m seriously thinking about a 3d printer for generating the keycaps but that’s strictly a low volume solution.

It would certainly be, yes.  My experience with 3D printing tells me it's an ideal method.  My problem isn't with the shape of the keycaps - the Knight and SAIL keyboards don't have any weirdly shaped keys - but the custom legends.

https://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/ is very nice.  You can get 3D renders from the layouts, like these:

[Lars Brinkhoff]

My experience with 3D printing tells me it's an ideal method.

Oops, I meant to write NOT ideal.

I 3D printed a VT100 model, and it took a lot of sanding, fillers, sanding again, etc to get a pleasing result.