In 1957 Kenneth Olsen and Harland Anderson formed a company called Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Their original objective was to grab a slice of IBM's business market and sell million-dollar mainframes. Financial realities prevailed, however, and a new plan emerged--build a slightly scaled down computer and sell it for $125,000 to scientific and engineering markets. DEC computers proved successful even in other markets and by 1969--during the era of miniskirts and miniseries--these computers were universally referred to as "minicomputers."

The book Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Campbell-Kelly and Aspray (Basic Books, 1996) contains a good history of minicomputers. Also, you can tour Carl Friend's minicomputer museum.

Digital Equipment Corporation merged with Compaq in 1998. Today's minicomputer vendors include IBM, Digital/Compaq, and Hewlett Packard. IBM's AS/400 has probably been the most popular minicomputer of all time. Check it out at www.as400.ibm.com.

Additional Links

For an update on what's new about minicomputers, visit Compaq's Enterprise Solutions and Services Web site.

Compaq VAX Systems  At this home page of Compaq's VAX series of computers, you can find news about the VAX series, information about current and discontinued VAX products, and success stories about VAX computers. October 1997 was the 20th anniversary of VAX computer systems and their operating system, OpenVMS. You can learn about how DEC celebrated its anniversary at Celebrating VAX OpenVMS at 20.