VMS

VMS
Logging into a 4.7 VMS system
Creator:	Digital Equipment Corporation
This Version:	7.3 (for VAX) 8.4 (for Alpha and Itanium) 9.2 (for x86)

VMS is a high-end, secure, multi-tasking operating system written by Digital Equipment Corporation and currently actively maintained by VMS Software, Inc. (VSI).

It runs on the VAX, Alpha, Itanium, and x86 platforms. Beginning with VMS V5.5, the OS was renamed to OpenVMS.

VMS has been ported to x86 by VMS Software, Inc..

Supported machines/architectures (by example)

Version	Machines
VAX/VMS V1.0	VAX-11/780
VAX/VMS V2.0	VAX-11/750
VAX/VMS V3.0	VAX-11/730
VAX/VMS V4.0	VAX 8600
MicroVMS V4.0	MicroVAX I / MicroVAX II
VAX/VMS V5.0-2A	VAX 6000
OpenVMS AXP V1.0	Alpha
OpenVMS V8.0	Itanium
OpenVMS V9.0	x86

Emulation

VMS and OpenVMS can be run on SIMH's VAX simulators. OpenVMS can also run on ES 40 Emulator which will run the Alpha version. Although VMS is still a commercial operating system, just like many varieties of commercial UNIX and Windows, VMS Software, Inc. (which is the current owner of most of DEC's assets) has a hobbyist program which allows licenses to be obtained for non-commercial uses for the Alpha, Itanium, and x86 platforms.

There are currently no known hobbyist licenses for OpenVMS/VAX versions V5.x and higher.

See the following:

* http://www.wherry.com/gadgets/retrocomputing/vax-simh.html

See also

• Installing VMS V1.0 on SIMH
• Customizing VMS V1.0‎‎
• VMS Practical Guides
• VAXcluster
• ODS2
• Upgrade horror story: Literally.

External links

• VSI OpenVMS Wiki
• OpenVMS release history (via Wayback machine).
• VSI OpenVMS Support Roadmap
• VAX/VMS Versions - "which VMS versions are supported on which CPUs"