Date of introduction:  1968 (Announced before August '68)
Date of withdrawal:    1971.
Total production run:  3902.
Price: $8,500

Technology:  DEC M-series flip Chip modules, as in the PDP-8/I, with the
	same core memory as the 8/I, but with a memory cycle cycle of 1.6
	microseconds to avoid the speed problems that plagued early -8/I
	systems.

	The positive I/O bus, or posibus, was a 100 ohm bus clamped
	between 0 and 3 volts with TTL drivers and receivers.  This was
	packaged with 18 signal lines per 2-sided interconnect cable,
	using double-sided shielded mylar ribbon cable in most cases.
	Electrically, coaxial cable could be used, but the slots in the
	CPU box were too small for this.

Reason for introduction:  This machine was developed as a moderately
	successful exercise using M-series logic to produce a lower cost
	but moderately fast machine.  The idea was to cut costs by
	limiting provisions for expansion.

Reason for withdrawal:  The PDP-8/E made performance improvements while
	slightly undercutting the price of the PDP-8/L.

Compatability:  The core of the PDP-8 instruction set is present, but
	all Group 3 OPR instructions are no-ops, even the Group 3 version
	of the CLA instruction.  This is because there was no provision
	made for adding an EAE to this machine.  Microcoding RAR and RAL
	together works as in the PDP-8/I.  Finally, a new front panel
	feature was added, the protect switch.  When thrown, this makes
	the last page of the last field of memory read-only (to protect
	your bootstrap code).

	The instruction to change the data field on an 8/L becomes a
	no-op when the destination data field is non-existant; on all
	other machines, attempts to address non-existant fields are
	possible.  One option for expanding the 8/L was to add a box that
	allowed 8/E memory modules to be added to the 8/L; when this
	was done, access to nonexistant data fields becomes possible and
	always returns 0000 on read.

Standard configuration:  A CPU with 4K of memory, plus 110 baud current
	loop teletype interface was standard.  Both rack-mount and
	table-top versions were sold (both 9" high by 19" wide by 21"
	deep).  The backplane was on top, with modules plugged in from
	the bottom.  The rack-mount version could be slid out for
	maintenance.

Expandability:  The CPU supported a new bus standard, the PDP-8 posibus.
	There is little space for in-box peripherals, but an expander
	box with the same volume as the CPU was available, the BA08A;
	this was prewired to hold an additional 4K of memory and to
	support in-box peripheral interfaces for such devices as a
	Calcomp plotter interface, a card-reader interface, a 4 line
	asynch terminal interface, a real-time clock, and more.

	DEC eventually offered the BM12L, an 8K expansion box that is
	essentially the same as the MM8I, but using positive logic and
	thus incompatable with the -8/I and -12.  This allowed a total
	memory of 12K on a PDP-8/L.  This contains precisely the modules
	needed to upgrade a 4K PDP-8/I or PDP-12 to an 8K machine, or to
	populate an MM8I box to add 8K of additional memory to an 8/I or
	PDP-12.

	Finally, DEC eventually offered a box allowing PDP-8/E (OMNIBUS)
	memory to be used with the PDP-8/L.  PDP-8/L configurations with
	over 8K of memory were awkward because the front panel only
	showed one bit of the extended memory address.  As a result,
	extra lights and switches for the additional bits of the memory
	address were mounted on the front of the memory expander boxes
	for the large configurations.

	A variety of posibus peripherals were introduced, most of which
	were built with the option of negibus interface logic (the -P
	and -N suffixes on these new peripherals indicated which was
	which).  Many early PDP-8/L systems were sold with DW08A bus
	level converters to run old negibus peripherals.

	Posibus peripherals introduced after the PDP-8/L (and also used
	with posibus versions of the PDP-8/I) included:

	-- The TC08 DECtape controller (for 8 TU55 or 4 TU56).
	-- The DF32D fixed head disk controller (a posibus DF32).
	-- The FPP-12 floating point processor.
	-- The TR02 simple magnetic tape control.
	-- The RK08 disk subsystem, 4 disk packs, 831,488 words each.

Survival:  Many PDP-8/L systems are in operating condition, some performing
	their original jobs.