Posted by : Anonymous on Jan 10, 2006 - 10:52 PM WebTechnology

Along with Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen honed his programming skills in the 1960s on Digital Equipment Corp. computers. Monday, Allen launched a Web site devoted to those computers and the pioneers who created them.
The site, www.PDPplanet.com, "fulfills my hope that the achievements of early computer engineers aren't lost to time," Allen said in a statement.
About two years in the making, the site features 16 photos of early DEC computers, chronicles the 17-month restoration to working condition of a disused DECsystem-1090, explains the history of Allen's mainframe and minicomputer collection, and offers links to other groups and sites devoted to early computers.
It also lets select registered visitors connect to a working DECsystem-10 or an XKL Toad-1 (a PDP-10 clone) and create or upload programs and run them.
"It gives them an appreciation of how it felt to be an early programmer," Allen said.
Allen and Gates got their starts in computing by time-sharing at Seattle's Lakeside High School. They used PDP-10s when they worked at Computer Center Corp. in Seattle in 1968.
PDP stands for Programmed Data Processor. Digital Equipment's first computer was the PDP-1, in 1960. It took up about 17 square feet of floor space, according to a handbook. Its washing-machine-size disk drives each held 150 megabytes of data.
"Those experiences during my teen years began my interest in programming and technology, and changed my life," Allen said.
PDPs were important mainframe and minicomputers for years before Macs and Windows-powered PCs pervaded home computing. Microsoft programmers used them to develop nearly all software that company turned out during its first 20 years.

The first video game, called "Spacewar!" was created by MIT students on the room-sized PDP-1. A third-generation version of that machine, which was able to fit on a (very large) desktop, cost about $16,000 and had less computing power than a $3 calculator does today.

Allen, a devotee of early computers, has acquired a collection of them over the years, which he houses in a nondescript University District building known as the Toad Farm, spokesman Jason Hunke said.

Many companies mentioned on the site no longer exist, having been acquired as larger machines gave way to smaller servers and PCs. Digital Equipment Corp. was bought by Compaq Computer Corp. in 1998. Compaq was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2002. The company that made the XKL Toad-1 System is now XKL LLC, a telecommunications engineering firm in Redmond.

Gates and Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1976, and Allen remained the company's chief technologist until he left in 1983 because of illness. He is chairman and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers and is chairman of Charter Communications Inc., a cable-television company.

Allen has also created the Microcomputer Gallery at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque, which is scheduled to open late this year.

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