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Leading to the creation of Digital Equipment Corporation
At their time in MIT Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson noticed students waiting hours to use the TX-0 and avoided the IBM machine. They saw a potential market for in essence a commercialized TX-0 machine, this would be cheaper and a lower-cost solution for specific tasks. American businesses at the time were hesitant to invest in computer companies. The only form of interest they received was the American Research and Development Corporation (AR&D) which became the Digital Equipment Corporation. -
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Digital Laboratory Module line / Digital System Module line
DEC shipped its first products the Digital Laboratory Module line.These modules consisted of individual electronic components and germanium transistors, and were packaged in extruded aluminum housing.Three versions were offered, running at 5 MHz, 500 kHz, or 10 MHz.The Modules were soon supplemented with the "Digital System Module" line, which were identical internally but packaged differently. DEC used the System Modules to build their "Memory Test" machine that tests thee core memory systems. -
PDP-1
This would mark the first creation of a form of a commercial computer that focused on the user rather than the efficient use of computer cycles. This product reflects the idea of its creators by being more affordable and accessible. This computer would lead to other impressive innovations and actions such as: emerging debugging code, text editing, music and games. It also lead to the first computer game Space War. -
PDP-6
The PDP-6 was meant to break DEC into the mainframe market with its 36-bit machine however, it was unsuccessful. It was meant to the DEC's first There were few buyers despite its low price and had lots of competition. The PDP-6 however did introduce the monitors as a early time-sharing operating system that would evolve into the TOPS-10. It would be the foundation for the creation of the PDP-10 -
PDP-5
The creation of the LINIC computer coined as the first real mini computer. DEC used the basic design of the LINIC and was able to be even more affordable computer. -
PDP-8
The PDP-8 replaced a few aspects of the PDP-5 such as the modules with R-series modules using Flip Chips and re-packaged into a small tabletop case. Another addition is the smoked plastic over the CPU allowing for a way to see the CPU's wire-wrapped internals. This is version is now referred to as the "real" mini computer due to its price. Sales for this computer was very good and did better than its competitors IBM and Honeywell. -
PDP-10
With the newer Flip Chip packaging it allowed DEC to re-implemented it to the PDP-6 at a much lower cost. This allowed for the DEC to refine their 36-bit design creation of the PDP-10. It was widely popular and was mainly used on a University setting. -
PDP-11
The PDP-11 was being created during the time of a great switch in the underlying organization of the machines from word lengths based on 6-bit characters to those based on 8-bit words needed to support ASCII. The new design didn't include a lot of the addressing modes that intend to make programs smaller in memory thus slowing it down. However, it gave the programmers flexibility to use high-speed memory caches as needed. DEC also used Unibus supporting all peripherals through memory mapping. -
VAX
The creation of dynamic RAM and semiconductor memory caused large price drops. DEC thus developed a computer whose architecture was upgraded from 16 to 32 bits. This made performance by processing data twice as quickly and enabled a huge memory to be managed by a new virtual memory system. By running in a second mode that sent its 16-bit words into the 32-bit internals and mapped the PDP-11's 16-bit memory space into the larger virtual 32-bit space, the system is compatible with the PDP-11. -
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Early microcomputers
DEC rejected two prototype microcomputers and didn't invest in the microcomputer area, but the Heathkit H11 was announced and DEC built the VT180 terminal. The most popular DEC microcomputer was the Rainbow 100, which ran the 8-bit CP/M operating system on the Z80 processor and a UNIX System III implementation called VENIX. -
Networking and Clusters
DEC launched 10 Mbit/s Ethernet and VAXcluster in 1984, allowing them to compete directly with IBM. Ethernet replaced Token Ring and went on to become the dominant networking model in use today. In 1985, DEC became the fifth company to register a .com domain name. VAX clusters allowed a DEC-based company to scale their services by adding new machines to the cluster at any time, enabling them to attack high-end markets formerly out of their reach. -
32-bit MIPS and 64-bit Alpha Systems
DEC launched the DECchip 21064 processor, a 64-bit RISC architecture instead of the 32-bit CISC architecture used in the VAX, which offered performance and was used in the massively-parallel Cray T3D. The Alpha-based computers supported OpenVMS, DEC OSF/1 AXP, and Microsoft's then-new operating system, Windows NT. Microsoft decided to no longer support and develop Windows NT for the Alpha series, marking the end of the Alpha series. -
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Change in Management
DEC had made 14 billion in sales and was expected to usher in the age of personal computer. However Ken Olsen was hesitant about the change and resigned in July 1992 and Robert Palmer was appointed CEO. This had impacted DEC financially and reported a loss of $183 million in 1994, leading to a 20% drop in the stock price. -
StrongARM
Digital Semiconductor and ARM Limited collaborated in the to produce the StrongARM microprocessor, which was based on ARM7 and DEC technologies. It was compatible with the ARMv4 architecture and was successful, competing against rivals such as the SuperH and MIPS architectures in the portable digital assistant market. The StrongARM intellectual property was sold to Intel and continued to produce it and develop it into the XScale architecture. Intel would sell to Marvell Technology Group. -
Acquisition by Compaq
DEC was sold to Compaq in the largest merger in the computer industry, reducing its high selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs. Compaq and HP re-branded former DEC products and used the Digital logo until 2004.