The DEC Programmed Data Processor Model Three (PDP-3) is a high
performance, large scale digital computer featuring reliability in
operation together with economy in initial cost, maintenance and use.
This combination is achieved by the use of very fast, reliable, solid
state circuits coupled with system design restraint. The simplicity of
the system design excludes many marginal or superfluous features and
thus their attendant cost and maintenance problems.
The average internal instruction execution rate is about 100,000
operations per second with a peak rate of 200,000 operations per second.
This speed, together with its economy and reliability, recommends PDP-3
as an excellent instrument for complex real time control applications
and as the center of a modern computing facility.
PDP-3 is a stored program, general purpose digital computer. It is a
single address, single instruction machine operating in parallel on 36
bit numbers. It features multiple step indirect addressing and indexing
of addresses. The main memory makes 511 registers available as index
registers.
The main storage is coincident current magnetic core modules of 4096
words each. The computer has a built-in facility to address 8 modules
and can be expanded to drive 64 modules. The memory has a cycle time of
five microseconds.