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DEC LAB-8/e (PDP-8/e) playing music

Philipp Hachtmann · demo · Watch on YouTube

Demoscene & retrocomputingHistory of computing

What it is

A 1971 DEC LAB-8/e (PDP-8/e) minicomputer plays music by inducing noise into a nearby AM radio. The software is Richard Wilson's 1975 Music Compiler running under OS/8.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN cites it as an early example of making a computer emit music over AM radio through electromagnetic side effects.

  • 1 people recommended it
  • 1 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2020

What HN commenters said

  1. “here's a video of a DEC PDP-8 (LAB-8/e) minicomputer (1971) playing music using the same technique [0]”

    PDP-8 playing music via radio emissions

    segfaultbuserr, 2020-04 · Recommendation · in “Finding Radio Frequency Side Channels”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: pdp-8, am radio, retrocomputing, rf emissions, minicomputer

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