The PDP-11, DEC's influential 16-bit minicomputer, inspired developer vanheusden to start building an emulator back in 2018. The result, named Kek, has matured into a surprisingly capable piece of software.

Kek can boot Unix 5 through Unix 7, including multi-user operation, and can also run 2.11 BSD Unix depending on the host platform. On the hardware side it emulates period-appropriate gear: RK05, RL02, RP06 and RP07 disk drives, the KW11-L line time clock, and the DC-11 serial line interface.

Portability is the real punchline. Kek runs on Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows — but also on a Teensy 4.1 or an ESP32. Modern microcontrollers have become powerful enough that emulating a machine that once filled a rack is no longer even a challenge, a fact Hackaday notes with dry amusement given how often vintage systems now get resurrected on chips smaller than a postage stamp.