Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

was a brand-new firm called Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and some ofthe TX-0 users knew that DEC'S first products were special interfaces madespecifically for that TX-0. It was exciting enough that some of DEC'S foundershad a view of computing that differed from the gray-flannel, batch-processed IBMmentality; it was positively breathtaking that the DEC people seemed to havelooked at the freewheeling, interactive, improvisational, hands-on-über-alles styleof the TX-0 community, and designed a computer that would reinforce that kind ofbehavior. The PDP-1 (the initials were short for Programmed Data Processor, aterm considered less threatening than "computer," which had all kinds of hulkinggiantconnotations) would become known as the first minicomputer, designed notfor huge number-crunching tasks but for scientific inquiry, mathematicalformulation ... and hacking. It would be so compact that the whole setup was nolarger than three refrigerators it wouldn't require as much air-conditioning, andyou could even turn it on without a whole crew of sub-priests being needed tosequence several power supplies in the right order or start the time-base generator,among other exacting tasks. The retail price of the computer was an astoundinglylow $120,000 cheap enough so people might stop complaining about how preciousevery second of computer time was. But the machine, which was the second PDP-1 manufactured (the first one was sold to the nearby scientific firm of BoltBeranek and Newman, or BBN), cost MIT nothing: it was donated by DEC to theRLE lab. So it was clear that hackers would have even more time on it than theydid on the TX-0.The PDP-1 would be delivered with a simple collection of systems software whichthe hackers considered completely inadequate. The TX-0 hackers had becomeaccustomed to the most advanced interactive software anywhere, a dazzling set ofsystems programs, written by hackers themselves and implicitly tailored to theirrelentless demands for control of the machine. Young Peter Deutsch, the twelveyear-oldwho had discovered the TX-0, had made good on his promise to write aspinier assembler, and Bob Saunders had worked up a smaller, faster version ofthe FLIT debugger called Micro-FLIT. These programs had benefited from anexpanded instruction set: one day, after considerable planning and designing bySaunders and Jack Dennis, the TX-0 had been turned off, and a covey of engineersexposed its innards and began hard-wiring new instructions into the machine. Thisformidable task expanded the assembly language by several instructions. When thepliers and screwdrivers were put away and the computer carefully turned on,everyone madly set about revamping programs and bumming old programs usingthe new instructions.The PDP-1's instruction set, Kotok learned, was not too different from that of theexpanded TX-0, so Kotok naturally began writing systems software for the PDP-1that very summer, using all the spare time he could manage. Figuring thateveryone would jump in and begin writing as soon as the machine got there, he