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As part of its use in artificial intelligence research, the computer was used to write simple western playlets and was featured in the 1961 CBS television documentary "The
Thinking Machine", and in the companion book by John Pfeiffer of the same title published by the JB Lippincott Company in 1962.
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The TX-0 was an 18-bit computer with a 16-bit address range. The first two bits of the machine word designated the instruction, and the remaining 16 bits are used to specify the memory location or operand for the special "operate" instruction. These two bits created four possible instructions, which
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was added. This dramatically improved programmability of the machine, but still left room for a later memory expansion to 8K (the four instruction bits and one-bit indexing flag left 13 bits for addressing). This newly modified TX-0 was used to develop a huge number of advances in computing,
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bank. However, the design was never approved and the TX-1 was never built. Instead, the TX-0 was designed for the same purpose, except using transistors. With the successful completion of the TX-0, work turned immediately to the much larger and far more complex
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After a time, the TX-0 was no longer considered worth keeping at
Lincoln Lab, and was "loaned" (semi-permanently) to the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) in July 1958, where it became a centerpiece of research that would eventually evolve into the
183:. Delivered from Lincoln Laboratory with only 4K of core, the machine no longer needed 16 bits to represent a storage address. After about a year and a half, the number of instruction bits was doubled to four, allowing a total of 16 instructions, and an
219:
After a short time selling "lab modules" in the form of simple logic elements from the TX-2 design, the newly formed
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) decided to produce a "cleaned up" TX-0 design, and delivered it in 1961 as the
128:, also built at Lincoln Lab. While the Whirlwind filled an entire floor of a small flat, TX-0 fit in a single reasonably sized room and yet was somewhat faster. Like the Whirlwind, the TX-0 was equipped with a
610:, University of Minnesota. — Dennis describes his educational background and work in time-sharing computer systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including the TX-0 computer, the work of
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336:
224:. A year later, DEC donated the engineering prototype PDP-1 machine to MIT. It was installed in the room next to TX-0, and the two machines would run side-by-side for almost a decade.
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Meanwhile the TX-2 project was running into difficulties of its own, and several team members decided to leave the project at
Lincoln Lab and start their own company -
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374:
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Development of the TX-0 at MIT - participants include Doug Ross and
Harrison (Dit) Morse, Electronic Systems Group alumni, interview conducted by Gordon Bell.
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Significant pieces of the TX-0 are held by MIT Lincoln
Laboratory. In 1983, the TX-0 was still running and is shown running a maze application in the
171:, completed in 1958. Since core memory was very expensive at the time, several parts of the TX-0 memory were cannibalized for the TX-2 project.
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TX-0 computer circuitry used Philco surface-barrier transistors, which were encapsulated in plug-in vacuum tubes for testing and easy removal.
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Philco surface-barrier transistor advertisement for the first high-frequency transistors, which were used in the TX-0 transistorized computer
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design and the construction of very SMALL core memory systems, the TX-0 was essentially a transistorized version of the equally famous
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101:, "the very first hackers at MIT", reveled in the interactivity afforded by the console, and were recruited by
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85:, were platforms for pioneering computer research and the development of what would later be called computer "
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of the computer, allowing it to display points and vectors with a resolution up to 512×512 screen locations.
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81:, the first transistor suitable for high-speed computers. The TX-0 and its direct descendant, the original
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69:. Construction of the TX-0 began in 1955 and ended in 1956. It was used continually through the 1960s at
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which allowed for direct interaction, as opposed to previous computers, which required the use of
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Initially a vacuum-tube computer named TX-1 was being designed to test the first large
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A Marriage of
Convenience: The Founding of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
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A Marriage of
Convenience: The Founding of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
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as a primary interface for programmers debugging their programs. Members of MIT's
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from the original on 2012-10-03 – via BitSavers.org @ Trailing-Edge.com.
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included store, add, and conditional branch instructions as a basic set.
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442:(Computer Science Technical Reports / Purdue e-Pubs). Purdue University.
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from the original on 2021-02-15 – via
ComputerHistory.org Archive
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Chiou, Stefanie; Music, Craig; Sprague, Kara; Wahba, Rebekah (2001),
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Chiou, Stefanie; Music, Craig; Sprague, Kara; Wahba, Rebekah (2001),
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with a working area of 7 by 7 inches connected to the 18-bit output
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196:, as well as the tools needed to work on such projects, including
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Computing in the Middle Ages: A View from the
Trenches 1955-1983
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to work on this and other systems used by Minsky's AI group.
89:" culture. For MIT, this was the first computer to provide a
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62:
668:— Website dedicated to information about the TX-0 computer.
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656:
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Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States
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RLE Technical Report 627 TX-0 Computer History (Oct 1974)
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PHILCO: Some Recollections of the PHILCO TRANSAC S-2000
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401:"Highlights from The Computer Museum Report Number 8"
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322:A History of the Internet and the Digital Future
521:"A functional description of the TX-0 computer"
518:
519:Gilmore, J.T.; Peterson, H.P. (1958-10-03).
559:, Bloomington, Ind.: 1stBooks, p. 80,
673:"Archives:The Computer Pioneers: The TX-0"
642:Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
604:Oral history interview with Jack B. Dennis
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57:(pronounced "tix oh"), was an early fully
614:on time-sharing, and the development of
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280:
263:— early video games invented on the TX-0
26:
18:
677:Engineering and Technology History Wiki
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696:
550:Ornstein, Severo (November 15, 2002),
154:oversaw the engineering development.
73:. The TX-0 incorporated around 3,600
61:computer and contained a then-huge 64
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53:, but affectionately referred to as
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281:November, Joseph A. (2012-04-23).
14:
725:
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424:– via Ed Thelen's Web Site.
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350:
132:system, consisting of a 12-inch
508:from the original on 2013-08-05
501:, AI Lab at MIT, pp. 7–8,
481:from the original on 2013-08-05
446:from the original on 2016-03-04
417:from the original on 2010-09-20
377:from the original on 2022-04-07
339:from the original on 2024-06-30
301:from the original on 2024-06-30
177:MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
622:The TX-0: Its Past and Present
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325:. Reaktion Books. p. 48.
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274:
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1:
360:A History of Modern Computing
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209:Digital Equipment Corporation
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16:Early transistorized computer
474:, AI Lab at MIT, p. 6,
261:Early history of video games
120:largely as an experiment in
7:
408:The Computer Museum, Boston
319:Ryan, Johnny (2010-09-15).
244:
79:surface-barrier transistors
10:
730:
363:. MIT Press. p. 127.
287:. JHU Press. p. 133.
179:and the original computer
608:Charles Babbage Institute
357:Ceruzzi, Paul E. (2003).
251:Expensive Desk Calculator
214:
709:Transistorized computers
99:Tech Model Railroad Club
704:One-of-a-kind computers
256:Expensive Tape Recorder
194:handwriting recognition
150:designed the logic and
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24:
535:Div. 6 - Lincoln Lab
30:
22:
618:at General Electric.
164:magnetic-core memory
67:magnetic-core memory
48:perimental computer
679:. November 13, 1983
234:Computer Chronicles
65:of 18-bit words of
627:TX-0 documentation
118:Lincoln Laboratory
33:
25:
566:978-1-40-331517-5
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714:18-bit computers
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148:Wesley A. Clark
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77:high-frequency
44:ransistorized E
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593:External links
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185:index register
181:hacker culture
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130:vector display
122:transistorized
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91:system console
59:transistorized
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659:on 2011-07-22
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438:(June 1991).
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455:Here: page 2
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198:text editors
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134:oscilloscope
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95:punched card
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36:
34:
637:Steven Levy
158:Development
698:Categories
683:2017-12-07
663:2011-07-02
450:2016-07-19
436:Saul Rosen
421:2010-02-19
381:2020-11-21
343:2020-11-21
305:2020-11-21
268:References
188:including
109:Background
649:"Welcome"
202:debuggers
152:Ken Olsen
126:Whirlwind
653:Tixo.org
579:archived
575:51823994
528:Archived
503:archived
476:archived
444:Archived
412:Archived
375:Archived
337:Archived
299:Archived
245:See also
138:register
616:Multics
211:(DEC).
573:
563:
367:
329:
291:
215:Legacy
190:speech
87:hacker
75:Philco
39:, for
582:(PDF)
557:(PDF)
531:(PDF)
524:(PDF)
506:(PDF)
499:(PDF)
479:(PDF)
472:(PDF)
415:(PDF)
404:(PDF)
222:PDP-1
83:PDP-1
571:OCLC
561:ISBN
365:ISBN
327:ISBN
289:ISBN
200:and
192:and
169:TX-2
55:tixo
50:zero
37:TX-0
35:The
537:MIT
231:of
115:MIT
71:MIT
700::
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651:.
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406:.
390:^
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666:.
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346:.
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63:K
46:x
42:T
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
