[Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine that made
{timesharing} real. It looms large in hacker folklore because of its
adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing facilities and
research labs, including the MIT AI Lab, Stanford, and CMU. Some
aspects of the instruction set (most notably the bit-field
instructions) are still considered unsurpassed. The 10 was eventually
eclipsed by the {VAX} machines (descendants of the {PDP-11}) when
{DEC} recognized that the 10 and {VAX} product lines were competing
with each other and decided to concentrate its software development
effort on the more profitable {VAX}. The machine was finally dropped
from DEC's line in 1983, following the failure of the Jupiter Project
at DEC to build a viable new model. (Some attempts by other companies
to market clones came to nothing; see {Foonly} and {Mars}.) This
event spelled the doom of {ITS} and the technical cultures that had
spawned the original Jargon File, but by mid-1991 it had become
something of a badge of honorable old-timerhood among hackers to have
cut one's teeth on a PDP-10. See {TOPS-10}, {ITS}, {BLT}, {DDT},
{EXCH}, {HAKMEM}, {pop}, {push}. See also
http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {ADVENT}{big-endian}{BLT}{connector conspiracy}{DEC}{elder days}{Foonly}{gweep}{HAKMEM}{high moby}{Internet}{PDP-20}{shift left (or right) logical}{TOPS-10}]