710904 Minutes of Low-Cost PDP-10 Meeting

This interoffice memorandum summarizes a meeting held on November 4, 1971, to discuss the development of a low-cost DECsystem-10 and its implications for the PDP-11/45.

The meeting was initiated by a proposal from David Stone for DEC to build a low-cost DECsystem-10 hardware system (under $80K by January 1974) capable of running existing DECsystem-10 software. This was intended to emphasize real-time systems and target the computational market up to $250K, with a primary goal of meshing these plans with the PDP-11/45's development.

Key points discussed:

• DECsystem-10 Plans: John Leng confirmed that the 10 product line already planned a similar system with a manufacturing cost under $40K, with a two-year timeline. Ron Bingham presented details, noting potential expansion to new software and the need for significant planning investment.
• PDP-11/45 Plans: Dick Clayton outlined the 11/45's strategy to expand current 11/20 products (RSTS, DOS, COMTEX, RSX) and provide strong real-time capabilities with a "multi-function" operating system. He noted that the top end of the 11/45 system would meet the bottom end of the low-cost 10, creating market overlap.
• Controversy: The main point of contention was the potential conflict and duplication between the lowest-cost 10 systems and the larger 11/45 systems, particularly regarding software like COBOL. The 11 group believed most current DECsystem-10 software would eventually have functional equivalents on the 11.

The meeting concluded with the following directives:

1. A two-year plan encompassing both 11/45 and KL-10 projects is critically important to maximize development value and market penetration.
2. The KL-10 project should focus on cost reduction without major software changes, supporting only one basic DECsystem-10 operating system and using all existing 10 software (e.g., PDP-8 based peripherals).
3. The 11/45 system should continue its current development path, prioritizing real-time and special-purpose multi-user systems (RSTS, DOS) before heavy EDP-oriented expenditures.
4. Future plans must explicitly address the transportability of user source code (FORTRAN, BLISS) between the 11/45 and the DECsystem-10.