TOPS-20 on a palmtop
how small is your PDP-10?

I have a Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D. It runs Embedix, a version of Linux, and uses the QT Palmtop environment. It has all the standard PDA apps, but you can also pull up a console and type at the bash prompt.

It has a 206MHz StrongARM SA-1110 RISC processor, 32MB of RAM, 16MB of built-in flash for the OS, and both Compact Flash and SD expansion slots. The screen is 240x320 with 16-bit color. The bottom section slides down to reveal a tiny QWERTY keyboard, which works better with Emacs than the handwriting recognition does.

Since it runs Linux, cross-compiling applications is pretty easy. I built a KS version of Ken Harrenstien's KLH10 emulator, and put a bare-bones installation of TOPS-20 on a virtual RP06 on my 128MB CF card.

Then and now

(A DECSYSTEM-20 and a Toad; the Toad's not so big....)

(The Zaurus. Hmm, maybe the Toad is big.)

It really works?

Yes, although it's not terribly fast. Here's proof:

, or

What do you do with it?

Um, nothing, really. One of these days I'll put ADVENT on it, I guess. If someone would only write some productivity applications for TECO EMACS....

Questions? Email jake@jfet.net.