Kermit Software for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8 and PDP-12

(Click image to enlarge)

Digital Equipment Corporation's 12-bit microcomputers and word processors include the PDP-8 (the first minicomputer, introduced in 1965), the PDP-12 laboratory computer, and the DECmate I, II, and III, WT-78, VT-78, and VT-278 word processors.

A Kermit program, Kermit-12, was written for these machines in PAL-8 assembly language in 1984-1992 by Jerry Sands, Randy Hippe, Martyn Hemmings, Sepp Stadelmann, Richard Schlerf, and Charles Lasner. It runs under OS/8, OS/78, OS/278, and OS/12. It is designed primarily to make serial-port connections at whatever baud rates are legal on the particular machine (up to 19200 bps and in some cases maybe higher) and conduct online terminal sessions and transfer files with the remote computer. You can find the source code and documentation files at in Kermit software archive:

http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/archivefiles/pdp8.html

You can also get the Kermit-12 files as Tar or Zip archives (download them in binary mode):

Format	Size	Link
Unix Tar	706560	http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/archives/k12.tar
Compressed Tar	327199	http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/archives/k12.tar.Z
Gzipped Tar	236999	http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/archives/k12.tar.gz
Zip (unzip -a)	242047	http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/archives/k12.zip

The filetypes are as follows:

File Type	Description
.ann	Announcements (plain ASCII text).
.boo	ASCII-encoded binary encoding to be decoded by k12deb.sv
.bwr	"Beware" file (hints and tips).
.doc	Plain-text ASCII documentation.
.dsk	Description of files (plain text).
.enc	ASCII-encoded 12-bit binary encoding to be decoded by k12dec.sv
.ipl	Initial program ("bootstrap") loader.
.lst	Load map.
.not	Notes.
.odt	Octal Debugging Technique (bootstrapping).
.pal	PAL-8 assembly language source code.
.upd	Update notes.

Also see (offsite):

• OS/8 Encoding Program (for .enc files)
• OS/8 Decoding Program (for .enc files)
• OS/8 Boo Encoding Program (for .boo files)
• OS/8 Boo Decoding Program (for .boo files)
• Initial Program Loader (for .ipl files)

Related (onsite):

• Kermit-12 Overview
• CP/M-80 Kermit (a version exists for the CP/M-80 side of the DECmate II/III)
• MS-DOS Kermit (for the MS-DOS side of the DECmate II/III) (CLICK HERE to download the binary)
• Kermit for the PDP-11
• Kermit for the PDP-10 and DECSYSTEM-20
• History of Computing at Columbia University

Links (offsite):

• The Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8
• Online PDP-8 Home Page
• Highgate's PDP-8 Page
• PDP-8.org a LINC, PDP-5, PDP-8 and PDP-12 resource
• The PDP-8 Pages at Parse.Com

[ Kermit Project Home ]

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Kermit-12 / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / 4 March 2003 - 16 March 2011