EXPLANATION
DEC was headquartered at a former wool mill in Maynard, Massachusetts, from 1957 until 1992
Ken Olsen and
Harlan Anderson were two engineers who had been working at
MIT Lincoln Laboratory[7]
on the lab's various computer projects. The Lab is best known for their
work on what would today be known as "interactivity", and their
machines were among the first where operators had direct control over
programs running in real time. These had started in 1944 with the famed
Whirlwind, which was originally developed to make a
flight simulator for the
US Navy, although this was never completed.
[8] Instead, this effort evolved into the
SAGE system for the
US Air Force, which used large screens and
light guns to allow operators to interact with
radar data stored in the computer.
[9]
When the Air Force project wound down, the Lab turned their attention to an effort to build a version of the Whirlwind using
transistors in place of
vacuum tubes. In order to test their new circuitry, they first built a small
18-bit machine known as
TX-0, which first ran in 1956.
[10] When the TX-0 successfully proved the basic concepts, attention turned to a much larger system, the
36-bit TX-2 with a then-enormous 64 kWords of
core memory. Core was so expensive that parts of TX-0's memory were stripped for the TX-2, and what remained of the TX-0 was then given to
MIT on permanent loan.
[11]
At MIT, Olsen and Anderson noticed something odd: students would
line up for hours to get a turn to use the stripped-down TX-0, while
largely ignoring a faster
IBM machine that was also available. The two decided that the draw of
interactive computing
was so strong that they felt there was a market for a small machine
dedicated to this role, essentially a commercialized TX-0. They could
sell this to users where graphical output or realtime operation would be
more important than outright performance. Additionally, as the machine
would cost much less than the larger systems then available, it would
also be able to serve users that needed a lower-cost solution dedicated
to a specific task, where a larger 36-bit machine would not be needed.
[12]
In 1957 when the pair and Ken's brother Stan went looking for
capital, they found that the American business community was hostile to
investing in computer companies. Many smaller computer companies had
come and gone in the 1950s, wiped out when new technical developments
rendered their platforms obsolete, and even large companies like
RCA and
General Electric were failing to make a profit in the market. The only serious expression of interest came from
Georges Doriot and his
American Research and Development Corporation
(AR&D). Worried that a new computer company would find it difficult
to arrange further financing, Doriot suggested the fledgling company
change its business plan to focus less on computers, and even change
their name from "Digital Computer Corporation".
[12]
The pair returned with an updated
business plan that outlined two phases for the company's development. They would start by selling
computer modules
as stand-alone devices that could be purchased separately and wired
together to produce a number of different digital systems for lab use.
Then, if these "digital modules" were able to build a self-sustaining
business, the company would be free to use them to develop a complete
computer in their Phase II.
[13] The newly christened "Digital Equipment Corporation" received $70,000 from AR&D for a 70% share of the company,
[12] and began operations in a
Civil War era textile mill in
Maynard, Massachusetts, where plenty of inexpensive manufacturing space was available.
