VAX-11/780 Dead
VAX-11/780
KindMachine
Introduced1977
Discontinued1988
StatusDead
ManufacturerDigital Equipment Corporation
ClassMinicomputer
Platform32-bit virtual memory
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗
The PDP-11's 32-bit heir — the machine VAX/VMS was built for and BSD Unix matured on. 'VAXen' ran universities for a decade and made DEC the #2 computer company.
1960198020002020
Created by Digital Equipment Corporation
Hosted OpenVMS
DEC's 32-bit extension of the PDP-11 (1977) — virtual address extension, hardware compatibility mode, VMS or BSD Unix. 'VAXen' became the university machine of the 1980s: BSD Unix matured on it, the ARPANET ran on it, and 4.3BSD shipped tuned for it.
Dave Cutler's VMS made it the industry-standard departmental machine; the line sold until 1988 and made DEC the #2 computer company.