About

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About The Project

Hi! We're a group of faculty and students in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth that recently aquired a PDP-12 -- number 435 -- from 1972 and are working to restore it to an operational state. Our goal is to use it for education, outreach and research as part of our larger work here at the university.

The PDP series of minicomputers was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation betwen 1957 and 1990. The PDP-12 in particular was a combination of the PDP-8 and another machine called the LINC. Our specific machine was purchased in the early 1970s by the University of Minnesota for use in cognition experiments. It has sat unused for approximately 40 years, but was in a secure, climate-controlled space, so we are extremely hopeful that we will be able to make it operational.

Dawson Rosell, an EE/CS double major has a UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) to restore the machine and do performance evaluation to establish the PDP-12's place in the larger evolution of computer performance.

In this blog, we'll be documenting our process of restoring and operating the PDP-12 in addition to the research, educational and outreach programs we develop using the PDP-12.

Acknowledgments


We are deeply indebted to Dr. Albert Yonas from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities who originally used this machine for research and all those who have gone before us, in particular the folks at the Rhode Island Computer Museum who recently restored a PDP-12 of their own and the folks online in the various vintage computer communities whose help has been indispensible.

Special Thanks

Al Yonas
Stephen Eskelson
Michael Thompson
Warren Stearns
David Gesswein
Vince Slyngstad
Jack Rubin
The Stearns Family
Jim Mahaffey
Charles A. Lasner


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