DIGITAL DIGITAL Computing Timeline
1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957
<1992>

February:
DIGITAL announces Alpha, its program for 21st-century computing.

Alpha was a totally new, open, 64-bit RISC architecture, addressing the needs of a broad range of computer users, engineered to support multiple operating systems and designed to increase performance by a factor of 1000 over its anticipated 25-year life. The first Alpha chip was the 21064, which provided record-setting 200-MHz performance.

May:
DIGITAL provides computer systems and software to the America3 Foundation racing team for its defense of the Americas Cup in San Diego, California.

In addition to designing engineering and performance analysis applications, DIGITAL provided a speech recognition system to communicate with the computer on board America3, allowing navigators to spend more time on the race and less time accessing critical data.

July:
DIGITAL announces the VAX 7000.

The VAX 7000 model 600 data center system was DIGITAL's most powerful VAX system to date. It was the high-end successor to DIGITAL's VAX 6000 data center systems, the most expandable data center system ever, and was field-upgradable to the Alpha 64-bit processor.

September:
DIGITAL introduces the DECpc LP series, the company's first internally designed, internally manufactured, industry-compatible PCs.

The new DECpc LP series PCs were based on the Intel 386 and 486 processors and featured SVGA video performance with GUI acceleration, 128KB of writeback cache, 70ns memory and 512KB of video RAM (VRAM).

November:
DIGITAL introduces Alpha 64-bit computing with five new workstations and servers, the OpenVMS operating system, multiple compilers and networks, and new open business practices.

The first generation Alpha systems included the DEC 3000 Model 400 and Model 500 Workstations, the DEC 4000 Distributed/Departmental System, the DEC 7000 Data Center System and the DEC 10000 Mainframe-Class System.

November:
DIGITAL releases OpenVMS/AXP V1.0 as part of its Alpha family of products.

OpenVMS/AXP V1 supported the first generation of Alpha processors including DEC 3000, DEC 4000, and DEC 7000. The new operating system was based on VAX/VMS V5.4 and featured DECmigrate for translating VAX images, and the Macro-32 compiler.

DIGITAL installs the industry's first commercial Internet firewall.
Timeline Home