Computing (FOLDOC) dictionary
Digital Equipment Corporation
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company (DEC) A computer manufacturer and software vendor.
hackerdom was closely symbiotic with DEC's pioneering
cultures nucleated around the
PDP-1 (see
TMRC).
VAX were all foci of large and important hackerdoms, and DEC
population.
The first PC from DEC was a
CP/M computer called
Rainbow,
announced in 1981-82.
DEC was the technological leader of the minicomputer era
(roughly 1967 to 1987), but its failure to embrace
and prestige after
silicon got cheap. However, the
descended from a DEC OS, or incubated on DEC
hardware or
both. Accordingly, DEC is still regarded with a certain wry
affection even among many hackers too young to have grown up
on DEC machines. The contrast with
IBM is instructive.
Quarterly sales $3923M, profits -$1746M (Aug 1994).
(1999-06-03)