VAX-11
The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).[1][2] Its former competitors in the minicomputer space, like Data General and Hewlett-Packard, were unable to successfully respond to the introduction and rapid update of the VAX design.The KA780 central processing unit (CPU) is built from Schottky transistor-transistor logic (TTL) devices and has a 200 ns cycle time (5 MHz) and a 2 KB cache.The microcode is loaded at boot time from an 8" floppy disk controlled by a front end processor, a PDP-11/03, which is used to run local and remote diagnostics.Unibus is used for attaching lower-speed peripherals such as terminals and printers and Massbus for higher-speed disk and tape drives.[11][9] This model is essentially a copy of the "dual VAX-11/780" computers hand built by wire-wrapping the backplanes of two VAX-11/780 CPUs by then graduate student George H. Goble and undergraduate assistants at Purdue University as part of his work on his Master's Degree thesis on modifications of the Unix kernel for multi-cpu architecture.[9][16] The decrease in CPU cycle time is accomplished through use of Fairchild Advanced Schottky TTL (FAST) logic.[10] The VAX-11/750, code-named "Comet", is a more compact, lower-performance bipolar gate array–based implementation of the VAX architecture introduced in October 1980.[21] Introduced in April 1982, the VAX-11/730, code-named "Nebula", is a still-more-compact, still-lower-performance bit slice implementation of the VAX architecture using AMD Am2900 chips for the CPU.
32-bitsuperminicomputersVirtual Address eXtension (VAX)instruction set architectureDigital Equipment Corporationuser modePDP-11Data GeneralHewlett-PackardMicroVAXVAX 8000central processing unitSchottkytransistor-transistor logicSynchronous Backplane InterconnectPDP-11/03metal oxide semiconductorerror correcting codeUnibusMassbusVMSclusterVAX Unit of PerformanceGeorge H. Gobleasymmetric multiprocessingAvie Tevanianbipolargate arraybit sliceAMD Am2900Living Computer MuseumOpenVMSComputer History MuseumRobotron K 1840Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and EngineeringFacebook18-bitPDP-1512-bitLINC-8PDP-8/ePDP-12DECmatePDP-1436-bitPDP-10DECSYSTEM-2016-bitDEC ProfessionalVAXstationFireflyVAXserverVAX 6000VAX 4000VAX 9000VAX 7000 and VAX 10000Rainbow 100VAXmateMultiaDigital Personal WorkstationHiNoteDECsystem serversDEC 3000 AXPDEC 4000 AXPDEC 7000 AXP and DEC 10000 AXPDECpc AXP 150AlphaServerAlphaStationCompaq Professional Workstation 1000 XPItsy Pocket ComputerJupiter projectList of VAX computers