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Digital Equipment Corporation, using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until forced to resign in 1992, after the company had gone into precipitous decline.
The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer.
VAX is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The VAX-11/780, introduced October 25, 1977, was the first of a range of popular and influential computers implementing the VAX ISA. The VAX family was a huge success for DEC - over 100 models were introduced over the lifetime of the design, with the last members arriving in the early 1990s. The VAX was succeeded by the DEC Alpha, which included several features from VAX machines to make porting from the VAX easier.
OpenVMS, often referred to as just VMS, is a multi-user, multiprocessing virtual memory-based operating system designed to support time-sharing, batch processing, transaction processing and workstation applications. It was first announced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as VAX/VMS alongside the VAX-11/780 minicomputer in 1977. OpenVMS has subsequently been ported to run on DEC Alpha systems, the Itanium-based HPE Integrity Servers, and select x86-64 hardware and hypervisors. Since 2014, OpenVMS is developed and supported by a company named VMS Software Inc. (VSI).
The DECstation was a brand of computers used by DEC, and refers to three distinct lines of computer systems—the first released in 1978 as a word processing system, and the latter two both released in 1989. These comprised a range of computer workstations based on the MIPS architecture and a range of PC compatibles. The MIPS-based workstations ran ULTRIX, a DEC-proprietary version of UNIX, and early releases of OSF/1.
The Rainbow 100 was a microcomputer introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1982. This desktop unit had a monitor similar to the VT220 in a dual-CPU box with both 4 MHz Zilog Z80 and 4.81 MHz Intel 8088 CPUs. The Rainbow 100 was a triple-use machine: VT100 mode, 8-bit CP/M mode, and CP/M-86 or MS-DOS mode using the 8088.
The Professional 325 (PRO-325), Professional 350 (PRO-350), and Professional 380 (PRO-380) were PDP-11 compatible microcomputers introduced in 1982 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as high-end competitors to the IBM PC.
The Multia, later re-branded the Universal Desktop Box, was a line of desktop computers introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation on 7 November 1994. The line is notable in that units were offered with either an Alpha AXP or Intel Pentium processor as the CPU, and most hardware other than the backplane and CPU were interchangeable. Both the Alpha and Intel versions were intended to run Windows NT.
The VAXstation is a discontinued family of workstation computers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation using processors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture. VAXstation systems were typically shipped with either the OpenVMS or ULTRIX operating systems. Many members of the VAXstation family had corresponding MicroVAX variants, which primarily differ by the lack of graphics hardware.
The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976. In addition to being powerful machines in their own right, they also offered the additional ability to run user mode PDP-11 code, offering an upward compatible path for existing customers.
The MicroVAX is a discontinued family of low-cost minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The first model, the MicroVAX I, was introduced in 1983. They used processors that implemented the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA) and were succeeded by the VAX 4000. Many members of the MicroVAX family had corresponding VAXstation variants, which primarily differ by the addition of graphics hardware. The MicroVAX family supports Digital's VMS and ULTRIX operating systems. Prior to VMS V5.0, MicroVAX hardware required a dedicated version of VMS named MicroVMS.
The DECpc AXP 150, code-named Jensen, is an entry-level workstation developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation. Introduced on 25 May 1993, the DECpc AXP 150 was the first Alpha-based system to support the Windows NT operating system and the basis for the DEC 2000 AXP entry-level servers. It was discontinued on 28 February 1994, succeeded by the entry-level Multia and the entry-level and mid-range models of the AlphaStation family. The charter for the development and production of the DEC 2000 AXP was held by Digital's Entry Level Solutions Business, based in Ayr, Scotland.
The DEC 7000 AXP and DEC 10000 AXP are a series of high-end multiprocessor server computers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation, introduced on 10 November 1992. These systems formed part of the first generation of systems based on the 64-bit Alpha AXP architecture and at the time of introduction, ran Digital's OpenVMS AXP operating system, with DEC OSF/1 AXP available in March 1993. They were designed in parallel with the VAX 7000 and VAX 10000 minicomputers, and are identical except for the processor module(s) and supported bus interfaces. A field upgrade from a VAX 7000/10000 to a DEC 7000/10000 AXP was possible by means of swapping the processor boards.
The VAX 4000 is a discontinued family of low-end minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation using microprocessors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). The VAX 4000 succeeded the MicroVAX family, and shipped with the OpenVMS operating system. It was the last family of low-end VAX systems, as the platform was discontinued by Compaq.
The VAX 6000 is a discontinued family of minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) using processors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). Originally, the VAX 6000 was intended to be a mid-range VAX product line complementing the VAX 8000, but with the introduction of the VAX 6000 Model 400 series, the older VAX 8000 was discontinued in favor of the VAX 6000, which offered slightly higher performance for half the cost. The VAX 6000 family supports Digital's VMS and ULTRIX operating systems.
The VAXft was a family of fault-tolerant minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) using processors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). "VAXft" stood for "Virtual Address Extension, fault tolerant". These systems ran the OpenVMS operating system, and were first supported by VMS 5.4. Two layered software products, VAXft System Services and VMS Volume Shadowing, were required to support the fault-tolerant features of the VAXft and for the redundancy of data stored on hard disk drives.
A VMScluster, originally known as a VAXcluster, is a computer cluster involving a group of computers running the OpenVMS operating system. Whereas tightly coupled multiprocessor systems run a single copy of the operating system, a VMScluster is loosely coupled: each machine runs its own copy of OpenVMS, but the disk storage, lock manager, and security domain are all cluster-wide, providing a single system image abstraction. Machines can join or leave a VMScluster without affecting the rest of the cluster. For enhanced availability, VMSclusters support the use of dual-ported disks connected to two machines or storage controllers simultaneously.
The VT1000 was a monochrome X Window System computer terminal introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in April 1990. The VT1200 replaced the VT1000 later that year, consisting of a code update and a bump in the RAM from 1 to 2 MB. All of the VT1000 series communicated with their host computers over Ethernet, supporting TCP/IP as well as DEC's terminal-oriented Local Area Transport (LAT) protocol. They also included standard serial ports to allow basic terminal emulation, built into the ROM.
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), was a major American company in the computer industry. Founded in 1957 with $70,000 of venture capital, it became "the nation's second-largest computer company, after IBM." Its initial major impact was in minicomputers, but its later-introduced VAX and Alpha systems are still notable.
The Tandy 3000 is a personal computer introduced by Radio Shack in 1986 based on the 16-bit 8 MHz Intel 80286 microprocessor.
References
- VAXmate technical reference (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. 1987. part number EK-PC500-TD-001.
