  digital equipment corporation, also known as dec"dec used by digital itself:" pdp11 processor handbook (1973): page 8, "dec, pdp, unibus are registered trademarks of digital equipment corporation;" page 1-4, "digital equipment corporation (dec) designs and manufactures many of the peripheral devices offered with pdp-11's. as a designer and manufacturer of peripherals, dec can offer extremely reliable equipment... the la30 decwriter, a totally dec-designed and built teleprinter, can serve as an alternative to the teletype." and using the trademark digital, was a major american company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. it was a leading vendor of computer systems, including computers, software, and peripherals, and its pdp and successor vax products were the most successful of all minicomputers in terms of sales. from 1957 until 1992 its headquarters were located in a former wool mill in maynard, massachusetts, since renamed clock tower place and now home to multiple companies. dec was acquired in june 1998 by compaq, which subsequently merged with hewlett-packard in may 2002. some parts of dec, notably the compiler business and the hudson, massachusetts facility, were sold to intel. digital equipment corporation should not be confused with the unrelated companies digital research, inc or western digital, although the latter manufactured the lsi-11 chipsets used in dec's low end pdp-11/03 computers. ==overview== initially focusing on the small end of the computer market allowed dec to grow without its potential competitors making serious efforts to compete with them. their pdp series of machines became popular in the 1960s, especially the pdp-8, widely considered to be the first successful minicomputer. looking to simplify and update their line, dec replaced most of their smaller machines wi
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