Timeline at VT100.NET

Here are selected links into the timeline that refer to the PDP-6, PDP-10 and relevant peripherials.

• 1963 PDP-6 being tested.
• 1964 PDP-6 unveiled, only 26 built.
• 1964 The Monitor, which eventually evolved into TOPS-10. The system programs resided on DECtape, leading to sections in the Monitor which checked for "Is SYS: rewinding?".
• 1964 DECtapes were used on the PDP-6 and PDP-7 for file storage. The tapes had 522 blocks of 128 words each (640 7-bit bytes per block) and could only hold 22 file names.
• 1965 Remote Access, logging in to a PDP-6 in Massachusetts from Autralia using a TELEX terminal (5-bit shift code).
• 1967 PDP-10 debuts. The KA-10 was popular with universities, research labs, and commercial timsharing bureaus.
• 1967 M series modules used integrated circuits instead of individual transistors, and were the basis for the KI-10 processor.
• 1970 VT05 was the predecessor to the VT52. (It had only 12 lines of text.)
• 1971 DECsystem-10 is the new name for the PDP-10 computer. Model 10/40 was diskless, Model 10/50 had disks. [The picture shows a KI-10 Model 10/70 with several VT05 (12 lines by 80 columns) terminals.]
• 1972 KI-10 CPU was the successor to the KA. Called a DECsystem-10 Model 10/70.
• 1974 LA36 DECwriter terminals replace ASR-33 Teletypes as terminal of choice. (300 baud.)
• 1974 KL-10 CPU introduced, sold as DECsystem-10/80 and DECsystem-10/90.
• 1975 VT52 replaced the VT05. (This video terminal had a buzzer instead of a bell.)
• 1976 DECSYSTEM-20 Model 20/40 was the lowest-priced general-purpose timesharing system (cheaper due to lack of cache in the KL-10 CPU).
• 1976 TOPS-20 was the indirect descendent from TOPS-10. (TOPS-20 was a direct descendent from BB&N's TENEX operating system).
• 1977 ARPAnet comes to the PDP-10.
• 1978 DECsystem-2020 introduced as "the world's lowest cost mainframe computer system".
  Can anyone identify the KS-10 developers in the picture?
• 1978 VT100 became the industry standard.
• 1984 36-bit architechture begins to fade.. In May, the 36-bit follow-on processor (aka "Jupiter", the KC-10) was cancelled.