• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

4K languages for the PDP 8

silcreval

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
73
Location
UK
What languages were available for the PDP 8 that ran in 4k. I know about the FORTRAN subset compiler, but was there ever a TINY BASIC ?
 
Edusystem 5 Basic
Edusystem 10 Basic
Focal Amity
That's what we ran on the PDP-8/L at my school in 1972 - 1975.
 
Do you have the papertapes for this?
I appear to have a functioning copy (as well as a couple of less functional ones) of Amity Focal on my site. It's decus-focal8-136:

I don't have write-up or source. From observation, starting at 00200 will halt at 04006 for some reason, and if you continue the introductory dialogue begins. (What is the correct starting procedure?)

I have placeholders for the Edusystem 5 and 10 stuff, but not the actual stuff.

Vince
 
I don't have write-up or source. From observation, starting at 00200 will halt at 04006 for some reason, and if you continue the introductory dialogue begins. (What is the correct starting procedure?)
An inspection of the disassembly suggests that 0200 is indeed the correct starting address. There is a check, however to see that the switches are non-zero. If they are zero, the HLT at 4006 is taken, otherwise it is skipped. Not sure what that's about.

Vince
 
Thank you both for the pointers. EAE-dependency, twice, understandable given limited memory, but unfortunate just the same. Has anyone designed/built a replacement for the venerable EAE (KE8-E)? Maybe needs a separate thread if there is a yabut, etc.
 
Thank you both for the pointers. EAE-dependency, twice, understandable given limited memory, but unfortunate just the same. Has anyone designed/built a replacement for the venerable EAE (KE8-E)? Maybe needs a separate thread if there is a yabut, etc.
There are software emulators, and they aren't even that large, but in 4K you may not want to spend the memory.

I started a KE8E implementation where each board is reimplemented with a 5V CPLD. The PCB has two sites, and you can populate either one or both. I've run my schematic-to-verilog scripts, but I've not yet made the time to actually debug the resulting Verilog.

Vince
 
Seems so, but they never responded to any mail I send.
Hopefully a friend will do some research in BASIC there in future, then maybe we have a chance to get a copy.
Maybe somebody has better contacts?
 
Thank you both for the pointers. EAE-dependency, twice, understandable given limited memory, but unfortunate just the same. Has anyone designed/built a replacement for the venerable EAE (KE8-E)? Maybe needs a separate thread if there is a yabut, etc.
If it's just for the multiply/divide and/or extra registers, it wouldn't be too difficult to modify - but it would increase the memory requirements and reduce performance.
 
Back
Top