PDP-11 takes me way back. When I was in grad school, we had a lab with a neglected PDP-11/45 (256KB RAM, like maybe 40MB disk) that one of the lab assistants loaded Bell Labs Unix V6 on. Definitely a formative point for me. Unix changed my whole wat of thinking about computers and software. That was an awesome machine to learn on, first ASM programming I did.

Somewhat bittersweet, though. They were hiring another lab assistant and I applied for the job. It came down to two of us. The prof running the labs asked if I had assembly language to which I relied truthfully, yes, a little. The other candidate got the job - the prof told me it was because he had more assembly language. But then for the rest of the year he would be asking me and others for help in assembly language programming on the 11/45. My first exposure to resume fraud. But it turned out OK because I got to teach the operating system course.

 

The ones I worked on were used in one of the first CNC applications, before the big boys like GE and Fanuc came into the picture.
Max.

 

Ok, I know working in the late 70 and 80 at pdp11-70, IBM 370, mv500 and HP and Wang so I had my share in assembler/Fortran/Cobol basic and APL. I started later with C. But my root was hardware started with 4 bit processor ( 8004 not sure anymore) later 6800 and 68000 and their
variants.
Here I am a poor silly old Picbuster still designing things and doing it with great pleasure.

Picbuster.

 

I had some fun with the Motorola MC14500, 1 bit processor aimed at PLC logic, supposedly related to the PDP-14.
I think there is still some sources out there for the Motorola ver.
Max.