January:
DIGITAL introduces VAX ACMS (Application, Control and Management System).

VAX ACMS was DIGITAL's first transaction processing product. It provided an environment for creating and controlling on-line transaction processing applications on VMS.

VMS V4.4 ships.

VMS V4.4 supported eight new VAX processors: the VAX 8200, 8250, 8300, 8350, 8500, 8550, 8700 and 8800. V4.4 features included ASMP support for VAX 83xx and VAX 88xx systems, cluster packages for VAX 8974 and 8978, disk volume shadowing and HSC support.

May:
DIGITAL introduces the MicroVAX II.

The MicroVAX II was based on a single, quad-sized 32-bit processor board and contained the MicroVAX chip (which included memory management). The machine featured a floating-point coprocessor chip, 1MB of on-board memory, Q22-bus interface, Q22-map for DMA transfers, interval timer, boot and diagnostic facility, console serial line unit and time-of-year clock.

May:
The MicroVAX chip is announced for the MicroVAX II.

The MicroVAX chip was DIGITAL's first 32-bit microprocessor and the first manufactured with internally developed semiconductor technology. The revolutionary "VAX-on-a-chip" had the highest level of functionality of any 32-bit processor in the industry. With the MicroVAX chip, DIGITAL became the first company to register a new semiconductor chip under the Semiconductor Protection Act of 1984.

September:
DIGITAL is the first computer company to register an Internet domain.

dec.com was established as a "class B" TCP/IP network. DIGITAL also created the first corporate Internet mail gateway, giving every email user in DIGITAL full access to the Internet.

November:
Introduction of the MicroPDP-11/83, the most powerful Q-bus 16-bit wordlength computer in DIGITAL's history.

Key features of the MicroPDP-11/83, included the new high-performance central processing module (the KDJ11-BF) and a Private Memory Interconnect (PMI) Bus.

December:
Introduction of the VAXstation II/GPX, DIGITAL's first technical workstation for the UNIX marketplace.

The VAXstation II/GPX was a MicroVAX II-based workstation featuring hardware-enhanced, high-performance color graphics. The workstation incorporated the new GPX chip set, a graphics co-processor for the MicroVAX, which extended the low-cost/high-performance advantage of the MicroVAX II to color graphics.