Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation

Industry	Computer manufacturing
Fate	Acquired by Compaq, after divestiture of major assets.
Successor	Hewlett-Packard (2002–present) Compaq (1998–2002)
Founded	1957; 60 years ago (1957)
Defunct	1998
Headquarters	Maynard, Massachusetts, United States
Key people	Ken Olsen (founder, president, and chairman) Harlan Anderson (co-founder) C. Gordon Bell (VP Engineering, 1972–83)
Products	PDP minicomputers VAX minicomputers Alpha servers and workstations DECnet VT100 terminal LAT and Terminal server StrongARM microprocessors Digital Linear Tape
Number of employees	over 140,000 (1987)

Digital Equipment Corporation, also known as DEC and using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1950s to the 1990s.

DEC was a leading vendor of computer systems, including computers, software, and peripherals. Their PDP and successor VAX products were the most successful of all minicomputers in terms of sales.

DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq, in what was at that time the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. At the time, Compaq was focused on the enterprise market and had recently purchased several other large vendors. DEC was a major player overseas where Compaq had less presence. However, Compaq had little idea what to do with its acquisitions, and soon found itself in financial difficulty of its own. The company subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002. As of 2007^[update] some of DEC's product lines were still produced under the HP name.

From 1957 until 1992, DEC's headquarters were located in a former wool mill in Maynard, Massachusetts (since renamed Clock Tower Place, and now home to many companies). DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq, which subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002. Some parts of DEC, notably the compiler business and the Hudson, Massachusetts facility, were sold to Intel.

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 with the PDP-11 in 1970, eventually selling over 600,000 units and cementing DEC's position in the industry.