65
Long gone, DEC is still powering the world of computing (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.ml
6 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] spauldo@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ah, DEC. Some really cool stuff came out of Maynard, MA.

A few notable things about DEC:

  • They made computers that were affordable by smaller businesses and universities.
  • The PDP-10 - one of DEC's only mainframes - was where the bulk of early Lisp development occurred, mostly for AI research.
  • UNIX originated on DEC hardware (before VMS).
  • The team that developed the Alpha (the successor to the VAX) was hired by AMD to develop the 64-bit Athlon architecture (what became X86_64 - i.e. what your computer is probably based on).
  • Intel chose a little-endian architecture for the 8086 because that's what the VAX used.
  • TCP/IP was developed on UNIX running on a VAX.
  • After the minicomputer market crashed, DEC was bought by Compaq, taken out behind the woodshed, and shot like a dog.
[-] davefischer@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

TCP/IP was... part of the BSD project? PDP-11 or VAX?

Our museum mostly collects minis from science & academia, so it leans REALLY heavily DEC.

Image

[-] spauldo@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

If I remember right, it was sponsored by DARPA. It was in the early 80s, so it would have been on VAX. It wasn't the first implementation (there were several prototypes), but it's the design that stuck; all the major OS implementations of TCP/IP today use the sockets API (if not the source code directly; several identical network vulnerabilities on different OSs are due to the fact that BSD code was free to use and copy).

this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
65 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

34899 readers
255 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.

Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.

Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
MinutePhrase@lemmy.ml