The PDP-10 is a 36 bit computer build by DEC. Multiple models where build from 1967 to 1986 by DEC and for a long time after by others (in 1997 Paul Allen bought such a clone). The PDP-10 where present in the early Arpanet and Internet (the tenex mode in the man page of ftp make reference to a PDP-10 OS, ancestor of TOPS-20).
Now there are also simulators for PDP-10 and these simulators are able to run the PDP-10 OS (TOPS-10, TOPS-20, ITS) as DEC has made available a Personal License (36 bit.org, local copy) for PDP-10 software.
I've used a PDP-10 running TOPS-20 in 1986-1987 (that's the computer on which I've used emacs for the first time), and it amused me to set up a simulator (I've taken the Panda distribution). In this page, I intend to provide some starter information for using TOPS-20. To get an account on a TOPS-20 system or setup your simulator, see the external links.
All corrections, suggestions and comments are welcome. Most of the information is also present in the TOPS-20 documentation (this is on bitsavers, they are bandwidth limited but have mirrors; on the Panda distribution -- and I assume on most TOPS-20 systems --, it is also present in the <documentation> directory; I've put some html arround the user's guide and the commands reference manual), but in a form which may be less understandable for people knowning Unix or less conveniently arranged. The rest comes mainly from various places accessible through the external links and a little experimentation.
TOPS-20 Command Reference Manual
It is better to use xterm as terminal
emulator as in my experience it is far more compatible with
VT100 that gnome or KDE terminal emulators.
The monitor is what unix call the kernel.
A structure is what unix call a file system.
A logical name is a restricted form environment variables, referencing files and directories.
The file LOGIN.CMD in
your directory is executed when you log in. You'll probably
want to put at least
set terminal vt100
Accounts may have privileges (operator, wheel, administrator, ...). Even if you have given you some privileges, they are disabled when you login. You have to enable them with the
enable
disable
An account is a directory which doesn't have the file-only property.
Directories have quotas. The default quotas are
low by today's standards, you may want to set
them to infinity. Don't forget to change both
the permanent and working quota. Another quota you may want
to change, is the one controlling the number of allowed
subdirectories (by default, you can't create
subdirectories).
Creating and modifying directories is made with the
build or
^Ecreate command (^E is for
CONTROL-E, yes privilegied commands in TOPS-20 have a
control character in their names). I don't know what's the
difference between the two (a guess: they started with
^Ecreate and added build after,
when there was a need for normal users to create
directories).
When the emulator is running:
^\ KLH10> devmount mta0 commands.tap create Mount requested: "commands.tap" KLH10> [mta0: Tape offline] KLH10> cont Continuing KN10 at loc 01142476... @copyCOMMANDS.MEM.1 MTA0: COMMANDS.MEM.1 => MTA0:COMMANDS [OK]
Then under Linux:
$ extractTape -E -f commands.tap commands.raw $ wfconv -ct < commands.raw > commands.txt
And you have under commands.txt a readable text file.
Here are some links on other sites with PDP-10 stuff. The list doesn't want to be complete, just to provide a good starting point for further information.
Bob posted some images about DEC and asked if someone could put them on a higher-bandwidith site. I've put them here.