DEC manuals

DEC manuals and other documentation, including such things as circuit schematics, were accumulated by DEC over several decades. Dating, as DEC did, from the early days of the industry, and originally catering primarily to engineers as customers, who were able to repair and modify their DEC machines, it always had the habit of making available extensive documentation on its machines.

Many (most) have now been scanned, and are available on/through the Internet; this is a huge benefit to the museums and many collectors who now keep, maintain and run collectable DEC gear.

Identification/numbering system

Similar to DEC engineering drawing numbers, DEC manuals all had an identification 'number' (it included letters). There were two different systems: one in use up to about April, 1975; the other, thereafter.

In the first, they had the form 'DEC-ww-xxxxxx-y-z'; 'ww' was a number which indicated which line the manual was for/associated-with (e.g. "10" for the PDP-10, "11" for PDP-11's). The rest were all letters; 'z' indicated the revision level of that particular manual, so the first one had an 'A'.

In the second, they had the form 'ww-xxxx-yy-zzz'. (In many of the late manuals, the final '-' is replaced with a '.') 'ww' was an alphabetic code (similar to DECdrawing codes), which indicated what class of document it was. The following codes are known:

• AA - Software documentation / 'Maintenance Guide'
• AD - Addenda
• AE - Software Product Description
• AV - Reference cards
• DS - Alpha CPU/Chipset documentation
• EB - Books, including 'Handbook's
• EC - Alpha system component documentation
• ED - Data sheets
• EK - 'Hardware Documentation'
• EY - Educational Services / 'Engineering Drawings'

The next field, 'xxxx', indicated which type of system/module the manual was for. The following 'yy' field indicated the type of manual/document it was; the following types (again, similar to drawing codes) are known:

• CG - 'Conversion Guide'
• HR - 'Mini-Reference Guide'
• IN - 'Installation Manual'
• IP - 'Illustrated Parts Breakdown'
• IS - 'Technical Information'
• MA - 'Maintenance Advisory'
• MC - 'Maintenance Card'
• MG - 'Service Manual' (probably stands for 'Maintenance Guide')
• MM - 'Maintenance Manual'
• OM - 'Owner's Guide'/'Owner's and System Installation Guide'
• OP - 'Operator's Manual'
• PG - 'Pocket Service Guide'
• PS - 'Condensed Service Information'
• RG - 'Mini Reference Guide'
• SG - 'Maintenance Guide' (probably stands for 'Service Guide')
• SV - 'Service Information'
• TD - 'Technical Description'
• TI - 'Technical Information'
• TM - 'Technical Manual'/'Technical User's Guide'
• TS - 'Advanced Troubleshooting'
• UG - 'User Guide'
• UI - 'User Information'

Many of those appear to have been dreamed up on a 'one-off' basis; the most common are 'MM', 'OP', and 'TM'. The closing 'zzz' was a number indicating the revision level of the manual at hand; it started at '001'.

Online collections

There are several large collections available online, on/through the Internet (see links below).

Manx, in addition to indexing many online collections, once hosted copies of several collections (notably Antonio Carlini's large collection). These appear to have been removed at some point after August, 2024; the reason is unknown. Confusingly, Manx's database still contains (as of the date of the writing of this - 9 October, 2026) links to copies of things once hosted at Manx - but those files themselves are no longer accessible! Apparently all of the removed files are still accessible through the Internet Archive (see links below), if you have the old Manx URL. Many also appear to currently be available through a mirror at VT100.net (see below); but no general index to them, there, appears to be on hand. (Prototype URL's for access to the ones that appear to be there are given below, with instructions on how to use them.) However, oddly enough, some search engines appear to now know of the VT100 copies - perhaps because Manx itself still/now links to them!

See also

• Maintenance Documentation Service
• DEC engineering drawing numbers
• DEC Documentation
• DEC Unique Product Identifier

External links

• DEC STD 012-1 Documentation Identification Conventions Including Mnemonic Codes - still later specification
• DEC - the primary online collection is at Bitsavers
  • Maintenance Print list
• Manx - Manx indexes many online collections of manuals
  • About Manx
  • collections - an apparently-complete set of the now-missing material from Manx, in the Internet Archive
    • Antonio - Manx's copy of Antonio Carlini's collection, in the Internet Archive
      • dec
        • DEC standards
      • arc-db
      • chrisq - random stuff, including Dilog Emulex, Micropolis
    • HCPS - Manx's copy of the HCPS collection, in the Internet Archive
• VT100.net
  • VT100's Antonio mirror - A copy of Manx's "collections/antonio/dec/" directory; replace the 'zz' with the filename after the "antonio/dec/" in the original
  • VT100's HCPS mirror - likewise for "collections/hcps"
• Documentation - the collection at VAXHaven
• Main Scanned Document List - the collection at Wilber Williams' Computer Museum
• classiccmp - Chris Kennedy's archive of Henk Gooijen's scans
• dec - filibeto.org; has a great deal of VAX material
  • hardware - EK- series
  • mds - Maintenance Documentation Service sets
    • mds-1997-10
    • mds-1999-09
    • mds-2000-01
• DEC Western Research Laboratory (WRL) Technical Reports and Technical Notes
• 'Missing' Digital Equipment Corporation Field Maintenance Print Sets Online