DEC Definition/Meaning:
Digital Equipment Corporation, a company founded by two key individuals,
Kenneth Olsen and Harlan Anderson, both formerly employees of MIT's Lincoln
Laboratories. They originally founded the company to build transistorized
digital circuit modules. Their first product, the PDP-1, was built to
demonstrate the feasibility of building a full-fledged stored-program computer
from these modules. This machine was unique in that it was the first machine
with random-access core memory to be sold for under $100000.
DEC was the first minicomputer manufacturer, and is today the largest
minicomputer manufacturer in the world. It offers a full range of micros, minis
(POP series),
medium-sized larger machines (VAX series), and mainframes (DEC systems). Though
built to be operated as standalone systems, DEC machines have been popular with
system designers, who integrate these machines into any number of large
communication and other control systems. Perhaps DEC's most famous product is
the PDP-11 minicomputer, which was made famous in the computer science community
by the development of the UNIX operating system and the C programming
language. These software products have contributed to the popularity of the
PDP-11.
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