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==History==

==History==

DEC was founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957.  It released several lines of popular minicomputers, starting with the pdp/8 in 1958.  In 1968, DEC released a integrated-circuit version of the PDP-8, which made DEC a pioneer in the application of integrated circuits in commercial computers<ref>Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer by Eldon C. Hall, Copyright 1996, ISBN 1-56347-185-X</ref>.  At its peak in the late 1980s, the company employed over 100,000 people across the world and had $4 billion in cash on hand, making it the second largest computer company in the world, behind [[IBM]].  The popular [[PDP-11]] and [[VAX]] minicomputers were sold by DEC from the 1970s on.  However, a precipitous decline in business at a time when PCs were growing in popularity resulted in Compaq buying DEC in 1998, although the PDP-11 rights were sold to Mentec.  DEC produced various personal computers as well, including the Gigi, and a workstation based on a pdp/8 in microprocessor form.  The 8086/Z80 hybrid DEC Rainbow personal computer competed for a time with the IBM PC.  However, DEC did not successfully market the Rainbow against the PC and, unlike the PC, the hardware architecture was kept proprietary, which led to DEC dropping the Rainbow line after selling about 300,000 units.

DEC was founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957.  It released several lines of popular minicomputers, starting with the pdp/8 in 1958.  In 1968, DEC released a integrated-circuit version of the PDP-8, which made DEC a pioneer in the application of integrated circuits in commercial computers<ref>Eldon C. Hall, <i>Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer</i> (AIAA:1996, ISBN 1-56347-185-X)</ref>.  At its peak in the late 1980s, the company employed over 100,000 people across the world and had $4 billion in cash on hand, making it the second largest computer company in the world, behind [[IBM]].  The popular [[PDP-11]] and [[VAX]] minicomputers were sold by DEC from the 1970s on.  However, a precipitous decline in business at a time when PCs were growing in popularity resulted in Compaq buying DEC in 1998, although the PDP-11 rights were sold to Mentec.  DEC produced various personal computers as well, including the Gigi, and a workstation based on a pdp/8 in microprocessor form.  The 8086/Z80 hybrid DEC Rainbow personal computer competed for a time with the IBM PC.  However, DEC did not successfully market the Rainbow against the PC and, unlike the PC, the hardware architecture was kept proprietary, which led to DEC dropping the Rainbow line after selling about 300,000 units.

DEC is mentioned in the Tracy Kidder non-fiction book ''The Soul of a New Machine'', as then-competitor Data General Corporation (which was founded by three former DEC employees) was attempting to compete with DEC's VAX computer line.

DEC is mentioned in the Tracy Kidder non-fiction book ''The Soul of a New Machine'', as then-competitor Data General Corporation (which was founded by three former DEC employees) was attempting to compete with DEC's VAX computer line.