Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Type: Minicomputer
Presentation and Sale Period: Presented in December 1959; sold from 1960 to 1969
Weight: approximately 730 kg
Memory: 4000 words (9.2 KB) magnetic-core memory
Storage Media: Punched tape
Operating System: BBN Time-Sharing System, Stanford Time-Sharing System; however, most programs were run without using an operating system
Notes: PDP-1 stands for "Programmed Data Processor-1". It constitutes the first machine of Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP minicomputer series. Spacewar!, one of the most influential and widely distributed video games of the early history of computing, was developed by computer scientist Steve Russell on the PDP-1 unit installed at the MIT. The picture of a PDP-1 running Spacewar! is displayed on "The 1960s" page of this website.
