Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation, or DEC, was a large computer company (at one time, the second-largest in the world after IBM). They made minicomputers, their signature product (and the one that led to their success), for a period, the most popular kind of computers in the world. Their product range eventually extended from small mainframes to personal computers.

It was started in 1957, in an old wool mill in Maynard, Massachusetts. The original product line was modules, System Modules. Once those were established, they started producing computers using them.

They reached the peak of their success in the 1980s, with their VAX line. However, they were unable to successfully adapt to the rise of personal computers, which turned computers into commodities, and were bought by Compaq in 1998.

See also

• List of Programmed Data Processors
• Taxonomy of DEC consoles
• DEC indicator panel
• DEC Semiconductor Chips
• DEC part numbers
• DEC engineering drawing numbers
• DEC acronyms
• DEC Software-related Order Codes
• DEC Packaged System Nomenclature
• Edited Option/Module List
• DEC Documentation Errors
• DEC Hardware
• DEC Boards
• DEC Architectures
• DEC Buses
• DEC Systems
• DEC Processors
• DEC Memories
• DEC Peripherals
  • DEC Storage Controllers
  • DEC Disk Drives
  • DEC Tape Drives
• DEC Terminals
• DEC Software
  • DEC Operating Systems
• DEC Modules by bus
• Digital Technical Journal

Further reading

• Glenn Rifkin, George Harrar, The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation, Contemporary, Chicago, 1988 - The best general history of DEC, but stops at 1987
• Edgar H. Schein, DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC, Berett-Koehler, San Francisco, 2003
• Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, Harvard Business School, Boston, 1997 - Briefly discusses DEC's inability to adapt to the world with personal computers
• Alan R. Earls, Digital Equipment Corporation (Images of America), Arcadia, Charleston, 2004 - Mostly covers the early years

External links

Books

• Digital Equipment Corporation - Nineteen Fifty-Seven To the Present, 1972-78 - Thumbnail entries, but good coverage
• Jamie Parker Pearson, Digital at Work: Snapshots from the First Thirty-Five Years, Digital, Burlington, 1992 - good overview with many direct quotations from DEC engineers
• C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John. E. McNamara, Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design, Digital Press, Bedford, 1978 - a fair amount of technical detail

Websites

• Gordon Bell's CyberMuseum for Digital Equipment Corp
  • Digital 41 Year History CD
  • Appendix for Edgar H. Schein “DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC” - An interesting take on where/how DEC went wrong
• Work at the Mill - "the Story of Digital Equipment Corporation"
• The Tragic Tale Of DEC, The Computing Giant That Died Too Soon (archived)
• Digital's Technology Heritage
• DEC disk history
• Cables Reference Guide
• The DEC Emulation Website