Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!apple!baum
From: baum@Apple.COM (Allen J. Baum)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: History of personal computing (LONG
Message-ID: <15355@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 10 Aug 88 18:15:27 GMT
References: <5946@venera.isi.edu> <46500024@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: baum@apple.UUCP (Allen Baum)
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 16

[]
>In article <46500024@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>>In fact the DG Nova was a 16-bit version of a 12-bit machine (the PDP-8)
>>and architecturally is atrocious compared to the PDP-11 at least in my
>>opinion.

I don't believe there is much resemblance between a PDP-8 and a Nova, even
accounting for 16 vs. 12 bit words. The Nova was a Load/Store architecture,
the first as far as I know. The rumors that go around are that it was designed
at DEC to replace the PDP-8. The design was turned down, and the founders left
DEC to form DG. The PDP-11 won the design contest, and came out a few years
later.

If you want to see a 16 bit version of the PDP-8, check out the HP-21xx series
of computers. A direct ripoff, in almost every respect.
--
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