19771997...

and beyond
Nothing Stops It!
Of all the winning attributes of
the OpenVMS operating system,
perhaps its key success factor is its
evolutionary spirit. Some would say
OpenVMS was revolutionary. But I
would prefer to call it evolutionary
because its transition has been
peaceful and constructive.
Over a 20-year period, OpenVMS
has experienced evolution in five
arenas. First, it evolved from a system
running on some 20 printed circuit
boards to a single chip. Second, it
evolved from being proprietary to
open. Third, it evolved from running
on CISC-based VAX to RISC-based
Alpha systems. Fourth, VMS evolved
from being primarily a technical oper-
ating system, to a commercial operat-
ing system, to a high availability
mission-critical commercial operating
system. And fifth, VMS evolved
from time-sharing to a workstation
environment, to a client/server
computing style environment.
The hardware has experienced a
similar evolution. J ust as the 16-bit
PDP systems laid the groundwork
for the VAX platform, VAX laid the
groundwork for Alphathe industrys
leading 64-bit systems. While
the platforms have grown and
changed, the success continues.
Today, OpenVMS is the most
flexible and adaptable operating
system on the planet. What start-
ed out as the concept of Starlet
in 1975 is moving into Galaxy
for the 21st century. And like
the universe, there is no end
in sight.
J esse Lipcon
Vice President of UNIX and
OpenVMS Systems Business Unit
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
CHAPTER I Changi ng the Face of Computi ng 4
CHAPTER I I Setti ng the Stage 6
CHAPTER I I I VAX Hardware Devel opment 10
CHAPTER IV VMS Softwar e Devel opment 14
CHAPTER V Mar ket AcceptanceBeyond Expectati ons 20
CHAPTER VI Movi ng i nto Commer ci al Mar kets 24
CHAPTER VI I Networki ng 26
CHAPTER VI I I The Second VAX Generati on 28
CHAPTER I X Putti ng the VAX on a Chi p 32
The Fami l y Al bum
CHAPTER X Bui l di ng the Br i dge to Al pha 38
CHAPTER XI Al phaThe 64-bi t Br eakthr ough 42
CHAPTER XI I Inaugur ati ng the Ki ng of Cl uster s 46
CHAPTER XI I I OpenVMS Today 50
CHAPTER XIV Servi ng Customers Worl dwi de 52
CHAPTER XV The Affi ni ty Pr ogr am 56
CHAPTER XVI Vi si on of the Futur e 58
Maj or Rel eases of VMS and OpenVMS 60
VAX/ VMS at a Gl ance: 20-year Ti mel i ne 62
In a wor l d wher e computer technol ogy becomes outdated i n
thr ee to fi ve year s, a technol ogy that i s sti l l goi ng str ong
after 20 year s deser ves a r ound of appl ause. That
technol ogy i s VAX and VMS. In thi s, the 40th year of
DI GITAL and 20th year of VAX and VMS, DI GITAL i s
r efl ecti ng on a computer pl atfor m that made hi stor y dur i ng
the l ast two decades of thi s centur yand i s movi ng for war d
i nto the 21st centur y wi thout mi ssi ng a beat.
Cel ebr ati ng 20 year s of success, the VAX fami l y of
computer s and the OpenVMS oper ati ng system r emai n
the backbone of computer systems i n many or gani zati ons.
OpenVMS systems have become an i ndustr y standar d
i n r el i abi l i ty, scal abi l i ty, data i ntegr i ty, and conti nuous
computi ng 24 hour s a day, 365 days a year.
Thi s commemor ati ve book i s i ntended to pr ovi de a
behi nd-the-scenes l ook at the str ategy, chal l enges,
and peopl e that cr eated thi s gl obal l y-acknowl edged
engi neer i ng mar vel . It i s not i ntended to be an
i n-depth study of the technol ogy of the pl atfor m.
Rather i t i s i ntended to cel ebr ate a system that has
i ndeed become the Ener gi zer Bunny of computer s.
It j ust keeps on goi ng. And goi ng. And goi ng.
Edit ors:
Ji m Rai nvi l l e
Karen Howard
Writ er:
Kathi e Peck
Design:
Kathy Nar di ni , Doher ty
Communi cati ons
Research:
Ji m Rai nvi l l e
Cynthi a Car l son
Ed Yee
Ann Hewi tt
Review Team:
Paul Ber ger on
Peter Ber nar d
Jeff Bor kowski
Mar y El l en For ti er
Davi d Foul cher
Andy Gol dstei n
Mar k Gor ham
Jane Heaney
Jacki e Jones
Karen Leonard
Steve Stebul i s
Ed Yee
Phot ography:
Nancy Str ader ,
Cor por ate Photo Li br ar y
Di ck Wi l l ett, Forefront
Magazi ne
Web Product ion:
Ji m Keenan
Cont ent Providers:
Br i an Al l i son
Patty Ankl am
Paul Beck
Gor don Bel l
Ri char d Bi shop
Tom Cafarel l a
Ri ck Casabona
Br uce Cl afl i n
Wal l y Col e
Har r y Copper man
Chr i s Chr i sti ansen
Mar i on Dancy
Jan Dar den
Stu Davi dson
Scott Davi s
Bi l l Demmer
Sas Der vasul a
Ri char d Doucette
El l i ot Drayton
Ji m Evans
Dave Fenwi ck
Wi l l i am Fi scher
Mar y El l en For ti er
Sue Gaul t
Andy Gol dstei n
Roger Gour d
Cl ai r Gr ant
Heather Kane
Forrest Kenney
Vel i Kozkko
Ji m Krycka
Ki m Leavi tt
Jud Leonar d
Ri ch Lewi s
Steve Li onel
Jesse Li pcon
Dar yl Long
Erni e Lyford
Ri ch Mar cel l o
Dan Mar shal l
Wes Mel l i ng
Kathy Morse
Lar r y Nar hi
Ken Ol sen
Matti Patavi
Mar k Pl ant
Rober t Por r as
Jean Pr oul x
John Rando
Robert Ryan
Joe Scal a
Terry Shannon
Maur i ce Stei nman
Bob Stewar t
Mar k Sti l es
Bi l l Str ecker
Bob Supni ck
Wendy Vogel
Bob Wi l l ard
Ed Yee
Steve Zal ewski
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
After mor e than 300 man-year s of i ntensi ve devel opment, DI GITAL
announced i ts fi r st 32-bi t computer systemthe VAX-11/ 780 and
i ts compani on oper ati ng system, VMSat the Annual Meeti ng of
Shar ehol der s on October 25, 1977. Because of i ts 32-bi t technol ogy,
the VAX system r epr esented a new mi l estone for DI GITAL and was
her al ded as a maj or br eakthr ough i n the computer i ndustr y.
The VAX pl atfor m and VMS oper ati ng system wer e unvei l ed by the
Pr esi dent and founder of DI GITAL, Ken Ol sen. The new pr oduct was
showcased wi th a cl ear pl asti c fr ont so that the audi ence coul d see the
CPU, cache, tr ansl ati on buffer , and other i ntegr al par ts of the machi ne.
The VAX system was demonstr ated r unni ng a Scr abbl e pr ogr am
astoni shi ng spectator s by wi nni ng the match agai nst a human.
The wi nni ng pl ay was the wor d sensi bl y, taki ng the 50-poi nt,
seven-l etter bonus and scor i ng a total of 127 poi nts.
Over the next decade, VAX and VMS pr oducts wer e desti ned
to change the way peopl e used computer sand catapul ted
DI GITAL i nto a posi ti on as one of the wor l ds top computer
manufactur er s.
Set t ing t he sight s high
The VAX system was desi gned to meet sever al key obj ecti ves.
Fi r st, i t was based on a r evol uti onar y 32-bi t ar chi tectur e. Second,
i t sol ved many of the pr obl ems associ ated wi th ear l i er computer
technol ogi es. Thi r d, i t was desi gned to be useful to the l ar gest
possi bl e number of user s i n di ver se mar kets, and to offer
DI GITAL customer s a seaml ess tr ansi ti on fr om ear l i er
pr oduct ar chi tectur es. And fi nal l yi n di r ect opposi ti on to
the questi onabl e str ategy of pl anned obsol escencethe
VAX system was desi gned to l ast between 15 and 20 year s.
An i mpr essi ve l i st of r equi r ements, to be sur e. But VAX
and VMS met them al l .
4
The best of what weve learned about interac-
tive computers in our first 20 years has gone
into this machine. We have spent more than
300 man-years of intensive engineering effort
in its development, and during that time
I have sensed more excitement and
enthusiasm among the developers of
VAX than I remember seeing at any other
time in the short history of DIGITAL.
Ken Olsen
Founder, Digital Equipment Corporation
October 25, 1977
CHAPTER I Changi ng the Face of Computi ng
J esse Lipcon continually reiterated, Our top three goals are time to
market, time to market, time to market. At one point I said, Wait a
minute, J esse, what about quality? Without missing a beat, J esse replied,
Quality isnt a goal, its a given.
JayNichols
Computer Special Systems, Manager of Engineering
In our spare time, Stan Rabinowitz
and I wrote a Scrabble program for
the PDP-11. As soon as the VAX was
available, we ported it over to the
VAX. Ken insisted that we demon-
strate the Scrabble program at the
announcement. I ran the Scrabble
programpitting it against a
human beingand the VAX
demolished him. Then Ken stood
up and said, Its time for the big
league games. This isnt Tic Tac Toe,
this is Scrabble!
Richie Lary
Corporate Engineering Consultant
5
Moving from 16-bit to 32-bit computing.
A t ot al syst ems f ocus
Fr om i ts i ncepti on, the VAX devel opment pr ogr am had a total system focus,
encompassi ng gr oups fr om har dwar e and softwar e engi neer i ng, suppor t,
pr oduct management, documentati on, and manufactur i ng. Mor e than 1,000
peopl e i n the cor por ati on wor ked on the fi r st VAX and VMS system, i n some
capaci ty, on an extr emel y aggr essi ve schedul e. Wi thout questi on, the wor k
pr oduced wi thi n the l i mi ted ti me fr ame exceeded al l expectati ons.
Hardware meet s sof tware at t he drawing t abl e
VAX and VMS made engi neer i ng hi stor y by bei ng the fi r st i nter acti ve
computer ar chi tectur e i n whi ch the har dwar e system and softwar e system
wer e desi gned together fr om the gr ound up. Thi s was a novel appr oach to
desi gni ng a computer ar chi tectur e, wher e har dwar e and softwar e teams
wor ked j oi ntl y and al ter ed thei r desi gns i n consi der ati on of each other s
r equi r ements. The r esul t of thi s uni ted engi neer i ng effor t was a ti ghtl y
i ntegr ated system that pr ovi ded unpr ecedented r el i abi l i ty, fl exi bi l i ty,
scal abi l i ty, and data i ntegr i ty. In shor t, bul l et-pr oof computi ng.
The fi r st VAX system demonstr ated a maj or i ndustr y br eakthr ough by
pr ovi di ng the functi onal i ty, capaci ty, and per for mance of a mai nfr ame
coupl ed wi th the i nter acti ve capabi l i ti es, fl exi bi l i ty, and pr i ce/ per for mance
of a mi ni computer.
The pre-VAX years
The fi r st VAX computer was i ntr oduced as DI GITAL cel ebr ated i ts 20th
anni ver sar y. The companyfounded by Ken Ol sen, Har l an Ander son, and
Stan Ol sen i n 1957 wi th an i ni ti al capi tal i nvestment of $70,000began as
a smal l modul e manufactur er i n a cor ner of a spr awl i ng mi l l compl ex i n
Maynar d, Massachusetts, a smal l town 30 mi l es west of Boston.
Moving f rom print ed circuit modules t o comput ers
Whi l e DI GITAL i ni ti al l y pr oduced pr i nted ci r cui t l ogi c
modul es, the companys r eal mi ssi on was to br i ng
computi ng to the peopl e. In i ts second year , DI GITAL
made the tr ansi ti on to computer s and i n 1959 i ntr oduced i ts
fi r st computer the PDP-1. Dur i ng the 1960s, the company
r ol l ed out a fami l y of PDP computer s, each mor e power ful
than i ts pr edecessor. Ear l y on, i nnovati on and engi neer i ng
excel l ence wer e hal l mar ks that have char acter i zed
DI GITAL pr oducts thr oughout i ts enti r e hi stor y.
Peer-t o-peer net workingt he birt h of dist ribut ed
comput i ng
The companys fi r st computer s wer e stand-al one systems.
But i n the ear l y 1970s, DI GITAL pi oneer ed peer -to-peer
computer networ ki ng wi th the i ntr oducti on of i ts fi r st suc-
cessful networ ki ng softwar e pr oduct, DECnet. Networ ki ng
al l owed customer s to connect many mi ni computer s and
shar e a common database of i nfor mati on. Thi s appr oach to
computi ng l aunched the concept of di str i buted computi ng.
It was a novel appr oach because at the ti me mai nfr ames
and stand-al one mi ni computer s wer e the onl y computi ng
game i n town.
Up to that poi nt, computer s di d not tal k to each other.
Movi ng i nfor mati on fr om system to system i nvol ved usi ng
sl ow magtape and sneaker net. Di str i buted computi ng
offer ed the advantage of fl exi bi l i ty and connecti vi ty. Now
i nfor mati on coul d be moved acr oss computer r ooms and
l ater acr oss the countr y al most i nstantl ymaki ng the DI GITAL goal of
br i ngi ng computi ng power to the peopl e who needed the i nfor mati on a
r eal i ty. Techni cal customer s embr aced the i nter acti ve, accessi bl e natur e of
these new mi ni computer s, and DI GITAL began to fl our i sh wi th PDP
systems sel l i ng i n the tens of thousands.
CHAPTER I I Setti ng the Stage
6
Gordon Bells vision was the primary driver behind the entire VAX family.
And I think its success was due to his vision.
Bill Demmer
Former VP, Computer Systems Group
Front cover of Fortune magazine, October 1986. Features
story on Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation.
The beloved Mill
The physical environment in which VAX and VMS was cre-
ated was very much in keeping with its New England her-
itage. The Milla set of brick buildings in the center of
Maynard, Massachusettsexemplifies two old New
England traditions. One is the classic mill town pattern
with the development of an industry and the growth of a
community around it. The other is the thrifty Yankee
make do principleits better to make do with what
you have if its still useful, rather than abandon it and buy
something new and expensive.
The original mill site on the Assabet River was once part of
the town of Sudbury; the opposite bank belonged to the
town of Stow. The present town, incorporated in 1871, was
named for the man most responsible for its development,
Amory Maynard. At the age of 16, Maynard ran his own
sawmill business and later went into partnership with a
carpet manufacturer. They dammed the river to form a
millpond to provide power for a new mill, which opened in
1847.
The clock t ower
After Amory Maynard died in 1890, his son Lorenzo built
the Mills famous clock tower in memory of his father. The
clocks four faces, each nine feet in diameter, are
mechanically controlled by a small timer inside the tower.
DIGITAL never electrified the timer nor the bell mecha-
nism. To this day, someone has to climb the 120 steps
once a week to wind the clock: 90 turns for the timer and
330 turns for the striker.
In 1899, the American Woolen Company, an industrial
giant, bought the Assabet Mills and added most of the
existing structures. The biggest section was Building 5,
which was 610 feet long and contained more looms than
any other woolen mill in the world.
Over the next 50 years, the Assabet Mills survived two
world wars and the Depression. But when peace returned,
the Assabet Mills were shut down entirely in 1950. Like
many New England mills, it succumbed to a combination
of Southern and foreign competition and the growing use
of synthetic fibers.
From t ext iles t o comput ers
In 1953, ten businessmen from nearby Worcester bought
the mill and leased space to tenants. One
of the companies attracted by the affordable space was
Digital Equipment Corporation, which started
operations in 8,680 square feet in the mill in 1957.
DIGITAL grew so fast that within 17 years, it bought and
expanded into the whole mill complex. Inside,
old paint was removed from the walls, exposing large
areas of the original brickwork. Pipes were painted
in bright colors, in contrast to the massive beams
and columns. The large interior once used for textile
machinery became filled with modular office cubicles
offering flexibility to meet the companys changing
requirements. DIGITAL left the exterior of the buildings
largely unaltered, but cleaned up the Assabet River, which
once was colored with the residue from the
mills dyeing plant.
When the employees first moved in, the floors were wavy
and soaked with lanolin from the wool processing days
which would eat right through crepe-soled shoes.
While the engineers started designing the VAX and VMS
architecture, the floors were being refinished, so they had
to live with the ambient music of hammering on the floors
above. Then the floors were sanded and polyurethaned.
During the sanding, the engineers were given plastic
sheets to cover their desks and equipment each night.
Before the roof was replaced, rivers of water flowed
through parts of the mill when it rained.
7
Digital Equipment Corporation headquarters
in Maynard, Massachusetts, with the famous
clocktower.
8
I would say probably the most
significant thing that DIGITAL has
done is make computing available
to the masses. Instead of the high
priests in the white robes behind the
glass walls, DIGITAL brought com-
puting out of the glass house and
made it affordable and acceptable
to the mainstream.
TerryShannon
Publisher, Shannon Knows DEC
Indust ry t rends of t he t ime
Dur i ng the mi d 1970s, i ndustr y tr ends i ncl uded i nter ac-
ti ve computi ng and networ ki ng. Cor por ati ons wer e
di scover i ng that di str i buted computi ng was a vi abl e
al ter nati ve to the mai nfr ame batch envi r onment.
Di str i buted computi ng al l owed a company to
decentr al i ze i nfor mati on and put i t i n the hands of
deci si on maker san i dea whi ch dovetai l ed per fectl y
wi th Ken Ol sens or i gi nal goal of gi vi ng computer
power to the peopl e.
Due to i ndustr y-wi de technol ogi cal advances, mor e computi ng power
coul d be packaged i n ever y squar e centi meter of space for l ess money.
As a r esul t, computer systems coul d be made smal l er and mor e affor dabl e,
and pr ovi de functi onal i ty pr evi ousl y found onl y i n l ar ge mai nfr ames.
DI GITAL dr ove the i ndustr y tr end of bui l di ng i ncr easi ngl y mor e
power ful but l ess expensi ve and physi cal l y smal l er computer systems.
DI GITAL had devel oped tool s to meet the oppor tuni ti es cr eated by these
i ndustr y tr ends: the i nter acti ve mi ni computer , DECnet, mor e power ful
and easi er -to-use softwar e, a vol ume manufactur i ng capabi l i ty, and
fi nanci al appl i cati ons. However , cor por ati ons wer e bei ng constr ai ned by
the l i mi tati on i n the addr essi ng r ange of 16-bi t computer ar chi tectur es
a bottl eneck the i ndustr y needed to addr ess.
Out growing 16-bi t s
As ear l y as 1974, DI GITAL r ecogni zed the l i mi tati ons of i ts 16-bi t PDP
ar chi tectur eespeci al l y for such tasks as wr i ti ng l ar ge pr ogr ams and
mani pul ati ng l ar ge amounts of data often needed i n sci enti fi c, engi neer i ng,
and busi ness data pr ocessi ng appl i cati ons. The company r eal i zed ther e
was a need for a new ar chi tectur e that woul d be compati bl e wi th PDP
systems, but woul d have l ar ger addr essi ng capabi l i ti es and enough power
to meet the computi ng needs of the futur e.
PDP-11/70moving from 16-bit to 32-bit computing.
9
32-bit comput ing: t he next logical st ep
Some user s wer e al so begi nni ng to feel hamper ed by the l i mi tati ons of
16-bi t computi ng. They wer e becomi ng fr ustr ated that l ar ge pr ogr ams had
to be br oken up i nto smal l er pi eces i n or der to r un on thei r computer s.
The 16-bi t addr essi ng was hi nder i ng pr ogr ess, and fi ndi ng a sol uti on
became emi nent. Extendi ng the addr essi ng ar chi tectur e to 32 bi ts coul d
suppl y the power needed to sol ve thi s pr obl em. Other computer compani es
al so r ecogni zed the shor tcomi ngs of 16-bi t addr essi ng and had begun
wor ki ng on 32-bi t systems, whi ch seemed to be the next l ogi cal step i n
computer devel opment.
Consi deri ng t he al t ernat i ves
DI GITAL was i ntent on mai ntai ni ng i ts l ead i n the mi ni computer i ndustr y
and knew that extendi ng the addr essi ng ar chi tectur e was cr i ti cal . The
company consi der ed many appr oaches to extendi ng the addr essi ng that
bui l t on i ts cur r ent l i ne of pr oducts, the PDP fami l y and the DECsystem-10.
The company al so knew that customer s not onl y r equi r ed mor e
system power and memor y, but wanted mor e economi cal systems that
woul d be compati bl e wi th thei r PDP-11
fami l y of pr ocessor s, per i pher al s, and softwar e.
In l ate 1973, DI GITAL began devel opment of the
PDP-11/ 70an extensi on of the basi c ar chi tectur e of
the PDP-11 fami l yi n an attempt to sol ve the memor y-
addr essi ng pr obl em. The PDP-11/ 70 had a l ar ger memor y
capaci ty (up to 4MB), but usi ng i t wi th the 16-bi t PDP-11
softwar e ar chi tectur e was cumber some. The devel opment
team had the choi ce of fi ndi ng a way to conti nue to br ute
for ce extend the PDP-11 fami l y ar chi tectur e, or to cr eate
somethi ng new.
VAX-11/750
Creat ing a whole new archit ect ure
In Mar ch of 1975, a smal l aggr essi ve devel opment task for ce was for med
to pr opose a 32-bi t PDP-11 ar chi tectur e. The team i ncl uded r epr esentati on
fr om mar keti ng, systems ar chi tectur e, softwar e, and har dwar e.
The pr oj ect i ncl uded thr ee phases. Dur i ng Phase I, the team pr oduced a
document that encompassed a busi ness pl an, system str uctur e, bui l d pl an,
pr oj ect eval uati on cr i ter i a, the r el ati on to l onger ter m pr oduct devel opment,
softwar e, and the al ter nati ves consi der ed. In Phase I I, they pr oduced the
pr oj ect schedul e. Phase I I I was the i mpl ementati on of the pr ogr am.
The pl anned shi p date for the new har dwar e system was for 18 to
20 months fr om the star t date. The over r i di ng concer n was getti ng to
mar ket qui ckl y wi th a 32-bi t system to sati sfy customer s need for mor e
computi ng power.
Set t ing celest ial sight s
Ini ti al l y, the VAX and VMS devel opment team used the code name Star
for the har dwar e and Star l et for the oper ati ng system. Thus began the
cel esti al code nami ng of har dwar e and softwar e. Pl ans for a new fami l y
of 32-bi t systems had al r eady been dr awn. Over ti me, about 40 engi neer s
wor ked on the har dwar e devel opment team. Ever yone i nvol ved expected
thi s new cl ass of computer s to
pr opel DI GITAL to the for efr ont
of technol ogyand the ai r was
char ged wi th exci tement and
enthusi asm.
Planning t he project
Gor don Bel l , VP of Engi neer i ng, was
the pr i mar y dr i ver behi nd the new
di r ecti on for DI GITAL. Bel l dr ew up
pl ans for a new system that woul d
extend the addr essi ng scheme used
on the PDP-11.
Whi l e the i ni ti al code name for
the new system was Star , i t soon
became known i nter nal l y as VAX,
an acr onym for Vi r tual Addr ess
eXtensi on. When the pr oduct was
announced, the company added the
number 11 to the name VAX to show
customer s that the new system was
compati bl e wi th the PDP-11.
CHAPTER I I I VAX Har dwar e Devel opment
10
Its the addressing capability that
has probably been, over history,
the major driving force behind new
computer architectures. Its what
initially brought about the whole
notion of the VAX computer.
Bill Demmer
Former VP, Computer Systems Group
Above, VAX-11/780 Announcement, from left to right: Gordon Bell, Richie Lary, Steve Rothman,
Bill Strecker, Dave Rogers, Dave Cutler, and Bill Demmer.
Bi l l Demmer was the pr oj ect manager for the VAX pr oj ect and assembl ed
thr ee desi gn teams to wor k on the new ar chi tectur e. VAX A Team devel oped
the concept desi gn pl an; VAX B Team i ni ti ated some of the ar chi tectur al
extensi ons and pr ovi ded ongoi ng r evi ew of the desi gn speci fi cati on and
pr oj ect pl an; VAX C Team r evi ewed and appr oved the fi nal pr oj ect pl an and
desi gn speci fi cati on.
Worki ng t he pl an
The VAX and VMS ki ck-off meeti ng took pl ace i n Apr i l 1975. The task
for ceaddr essi ng such i tems as i nstr ucti on set extensi ons, mul ti pr ocessi ng,
and pr ocess str uctur escl oseted themsel ves away to di scuss thei r opti ons.
Thei r goal was to make the l east possi bl e changes i n the PDP-11, and sti l l
extend i t to have a l ar ger vi r tual addr ess base.
The fundamental questi ons wer e, Can the PDP-11 ar chi tectur e have i ts
addr essi ng str uctur e expanded to achi eve the goal s of tr anspar ency to
the user ? Can thi s expanded ar chi tectur e pr ovi de a l ong-ter m competi ti ve
cost/ per for mance i mpl ementati on si mi l ar i n styl e and str uctur e to the base
ar chi tectur e? It was not l ong befor e the team r eal i zed that both these goal s
coul d not be met compl etel y, and so they made the deci si on to devel op a
compl etel y new ar chi tectur e.
Al l team member s agr eed that the new system woul d have to be cul tur al l y
compati bl e wi th the PDP-11 and i t woul d have to mai ntai n the same l ook
and feel as i ts successful pr edecessor.
An ar chi tectur e evol ved that cl eanl y sol ved the fundamental l i mi tati ons
of the PDP-11. The team devel oped an i mpl ementati on pl an to over l ay
both the extended ar chi tectur e and the basi c PDP-11 ar chi tectur e, thus
per mi tti ng the new system to appear to be an extended model of the PDP-11
fami l y. Thi s woul d hel p to achi eve one of the maj or goal sal l owi ng cus-
tomer s to capi tal i ze on thei r i nvestment i n PDP-11 and gr ow thei r systems.
In addi ti on to expandi ng the addr ess space and ensur i ng PDP-11 compati -
bi l i ty, another goal was to cr eate an ar chi tectur e that woul d suppor t user
r equi r ements for 15 to 20 year s.
11
Ken Olsen powers up first VAX. The first time
the original VAX breadboard (prototype)
was powered up, Ken Olsen almost burned
his hand on the power supply.
VAX was the project nameVirtual
Address eXtensionbut it was never
meant to be the product name.
When it came time to choose a
name, we thought PDP-what? Then
some marketing specialist said there
are two attributes that are really
important in a name, if you want it to
be memorable. One is that it be
short and pronounceable and that it
have an X in it, because Xs are rare
letters, so they catch your eye.
According to that theory, we had the
best name sitting right in front of us:
VAX.
Peter Conklin,
VMS Engineering Manager
Evolut ion of t he archit ect ure
For al most a year , the VAX devel -
opment and r evi ew teams wor ked
back and for th on the VAX ar chi -
tectur e. After four ver si ons, the
pr oposed ar chi tectur e was found
to be too compl ex, too expensi ve,
and too compl i cated to execute.
The company for med a gr oup that
became known as The Bl ue Ri bbon
Commi ttee that i ncl uded thr ee
har dwar e engi neer s: Bi l l Str ecker ,
Ri chi e Lar y, and Steve Rothman,
and thr ee softwar e engi neer s: Dave
Cutl er , Di ck Hustvedt, and Peter
Li pman. They si mpl i fi ed the ear l i er
desi gn and cr eated a pl an that
woul d be possi bl e to execute. Key
modi fi cati ons i ncl uded dr asti c si m-
pl i fi cati ons to the hi ghl y compl ex
memor y management desi gn and
the pr ocess schedul i ng of the pr o-
posed system. The si mpl i fi ed ar chi -
tectur e, the fi fth desi gn evol uti on of
the VAX system, was per fected and
accepted i n Apr i l of 1976exactl y
a year after the desi gn wor k began.
The VAX st rat egy
Si mpl i ci ty was the essence of the
VAX str ategy. The VAX str ategy pr o-
vi ded for a set of homogeneous, di s-
tr i buted computi ng system pr oducts
that woul d al l ow user s to i nter face,
stor e i nfor mati on, and compute on
any of the pr oductswi thout havi ng
to r epr ogr am thei r appl i cati ons.
Machi nes woul d r ange fr om desktop
to enter pr i se-wi de systems. The
goal was to establ i sh a si ngl e VAX
di str i buted computi ng ar chi tectur e
that woul d r un the same oper ati ng
system. A r el ated goal was that VAX
pr oducts woul d one day pr ovi de a
pr i ce r ange span of 1000:1.
The competi ti on offer ed l ar ger
machi nes for upwar d mi gr ati on.
Si nce these machi nes di d not r un
the same code, the code had to
be r ecompi l ed fr om the smal l er
machi ne i n or der to r un. The
DI GITAL si ngl e-ar chi tectur e
str ategy equated to cost savi ngs
for customer s and si mpl i fi ed thei r
computi ng envi r onments.
In addi ti on, a si ngl e ar chi tectur e
enabl ed the bui l di ng of networ k and
di str i buted pr ocessi ng str uctur es.
Implement ing t he VAX hardware
Once the pl an was accepted, the
VAX and VMS pr oj ect entai l ed
sever al months of l ayi ng out the
basi c desi gn for the ar chi tectur e,
fol l owed by ni ne months of fi l l i ng
i t i n. The pl an was executed by
two separ ate har dwar e engi neer i ng
teams. One used exi sti ng technol ogy
to desi gn what eventual l y became
the VAX-11/ 780; the other team
devel oped a new VAX chi p tech-
nol ogy thr ough the DI GITAL
fl edgl i ng semi conductor gr oup
12
I dont think many people ever get the kind of opportunity we did. We had
good people, and we grew into a great team. We had lots of differences, but
we sorted them out and built what was expected.
Roger Gourd
Software Engineering Manager
whi ch became the VAX-11/ 750.
Memory and CPU design
In pl anni ng the memor y desi gn,
ther e was a questi on of what si ze
memor y and how many bi ts wer e
needed. Tr ade-off deci si ons wer e
made between achi evi ng the best
per for mance and opti mi zi ng the
number of bi ts used fr om a cost per -
specti ve. The VAX-11/ 780 memor y
desi gn was the fi r st i n whi ch er r or -
cor r ecti on and detecti on code (ECC)
was desi gned i nto the system. The
semi conductor DRAM (Dynami c
Random Access Memor y) was
suscepti bl e to soft er r or s. In or der
to pr otect the system fr om memor y
l oss or changi ng i nfor mati on, i t was
necessar y to stor e the i nfor mati on i n
the memor y usi ng some code wi th
addi ti onal bi ts of memor y. In the
unl i kel y event that one of the bi ts
changed, the memor y system coul d
r econstr uct the code, know whi ch
one changed, and cor r ect the
pr obl em.
Wi th vi r tual memor y, memor y
space no l onger had to be i n the
systems i nter nal memor y al l at
once. Instead, the whol e pr ogr am
sat on a di sk, whi l e the oper ati ng
system moved pi eces i n and out of
i nter nal memor y as needed.
Because the fi r st VAX systems had
ver y l i ttl e i nter nal memor y, thi s was
i mpor tant. Rel ati ve to i nter nal mem-
or y, di sk memor y was economi cal .
Vi r tual memor y al so al l owed pr o-
gr ams that wer e too l ar ge to fi t com-
pl etel y i nto memor y to r un par ts at
a ti mewhi ch was not possi bl e on
systems that di d not do vi r tual
addr essi ng.
13
In the early 1980s, we were designing computers so complex, our
engineering processes couldnt keep up with them. We discovered we
had to use the latest VAX to simulate the new one we were building.
Building VAXes on VAXesour first computers became tools for building
the next generation of VAXes.
Bill Strecker
Chief Technical Officer, VP, CST
VAX-11/780 moving from 16-bit to
32-bit computing.
VAX...when you care enough t o
st eal t he very best
During the cold war, VAX sys-
tems could not be sold behind
the Iron Curtain. Recognizing
superior technology, technical
people cloned VAX systems in
Russia, Hungary, and China. After
learning that VAX systems were being
cloned, DIGITAL had the following
words etched on the CVAX chip,
VAX...when you care enough
to steal the very best.
Actual Russian words translated: VAX... when
you care enough to steal the very best.
Wi th the VAX har dwar e devel opment under way, the softwar e
devel opmentcode named Star l etbegan a few months l ater i n June of
1975. Roger Gour d l ed the pr oj ect and softwar e engi neer s Dave Cutl er , Di ck
Hustvedt, and Peter Li pman wer e techni cal pr oj ect l eader s, each r esponsi -
bl e for a di ffer ent par t of the oper ati ng system.
VMS project plan
The Star l et pr oj ect pl an was to cr eate a total l y new oper ati ng system for
the Star fami l y of pr ocessor s. The pl ans cal l ed for a hi gh-per for mance
mul ti pr ocessi ng system that coul d be extended to suppor t many di ffer ent
envi r onments. Just as the har dwar e was desi gned to be cul tur al l y
compati bl e wi th the PDP-11, Star l et was desi gned to augment the har dwar e
compati bi l i ty by pr ovi di ng compati bi l i ty wi th the exi sti ng oper ati ng system,
RSX-11M.
The shor t-ter m goal was to bui l d an oper ati ng system nucl eus for the fi r st
customer shi pment of VAX systems. It woul d have suffi ci ent functi onal i ty
to be competi ti ve, but woul d al so pr ovi de a base that coul d be extended
and subsetted over ti me for a var i ety of DI GITAL mar kets. Long-ter m
goal s for the pr oj ect i ncl uded qual i ty, per for mance, r el i abi l i ty, avai l abi l i ty,
ser vi ceabi l i ty, r educed suppor t costs, and l ower devel opment and mai nte-
nance costs. The mai n focus was to suppor t hi gh-per for mance appl i cati ons,
such as r eal -ti me and tr ansacti on pr ocessi ng.
CHAPTER IV VMS Softwar e Devel opment
14
VMS V1 software development team.
Put t ing it in writ ing
Fr om the begi nni ng, the softwar e
team consi der ed documentati on to
be a si gni fi cant par t of the pr oj ect.
The fi r st techni cal wr i ter , Sue Gaul t,
attended desi gn meeti ngs wi th the
softwar e devel opment team and
hel ped them wr i te the Star l et
Wor ki ng Desi gn Paper. Thi s docu-
ment contai ned an i n-depth techni -
cal descr i pti on of the oper ati ng sys-
tem. Si nce thi s pr oj ect was defi ned
as bui l di ng a system of har dwar e
and softwar e together , i t was mor e
compl ex i n scope than any DI GITAL
pr oj ect to date.
Thr ough the exer ci se of wr i ti ng, the
engi neer s r ecei ved i nput fr om the
documentati on wr i ter s and wer e
abl e to tr oubl eshoot potenti al pr ob-
l ems. Ideas had to be expr essed
cl ear l y enough to be wr i tten i n the
specs. Thi s method hel ped to r e-
sol ve assumpti ons and potenti al di f-
fer ences of opi ni on. The desi gn doc-
ument al so ser ved to keep the r est of
the company i nfor med about the
VMS pr oj ect as i t was made publ i c
contr i buti ng to the over whel mi ng
suppor t and enthusi asm thr oughout
the company for the new pr oj ect.
Working in t andem
In or der to ensur e ti ght i ntegr ati on
between the softwar e and har dwar e,
sever al softwar e pr ogr ammer s at-
tended the VAX desi gn commi ttee
meeti ngs and contr i buted to the
har dwar e desi gn fr om a softwar e
per specti ve.
Cl ose cooper ati on between the har d-
war e and softwar e engi neer s al so
hel ped wor k out potenti al softwar e
pr obl ems, and ul ti matel y cr eated
a har dwar e and softwar e system
that was ti ghtl y i ntegr ated. It meant
the di ffer ence between bei ng
designed-in r ather than added-on
l ater. Many har dwar e factor s
changed as a r esul t of the softwar e
devel opment wor k.
The VAX and VMS devel opment
team r ecogni zed that an ear l y
har dwar e i mpl ementati on was
cr i ti cal to devel opi ng the softwar e
concur r entl y wi th the r eal
har dwar e.
Accor di ngl y, a team of har dwar e
engi neer s bui l t a system cal l ed
the har dwar e si mul ator.
Constr ucted of PDP-11/ 70
components, some custom l ogi c
boar ds, and a l ot of fi r mwar e,
i t pr ovi ded a qui ck fi r st i mpl e-
mentati on for the VAX pl atfor m.
The VMS team desi gned and
tested al l the oper ati ng system
softwar e on that si mul ator. It r an
10 to 20 ti mes sl ower than the
actual system was to r un, but i t
enabl ed the devel opment team
to wor k and devel op the softwar e
on the system as i t was bei ng
desi gned.
Breadboard on wheel s
The VAX-11/ 780 engi neer i ng team
fi r st bui l t a machi ne cal l ed the
br eadboar d and pl aced i t on a l ar ge
metal car t. Al l the ci r cui t boar ds
wer e cr eated wi th wi r e wr ap; whi l e
Creat ivit y wit h discipline
From its inception, DIGITAL realized
the importance of creativity, and
sought to create an environment
in which individual creativity would
thrive within a disciplined environ-
ment. The strategy was to hire
talented people and empower them
to develop plans, have those plans
reviewed and approved, and to
accept ownership of the project. The
company believed that people would
be most productive when they had to
meet milestones and stay within a
budgetthis is where the discipline
factor came
in. Each product line group was
responsible for meeting its plan with-
in time and budget constraints.
15
Software development is very creative, very individual. We want to give the
engineers the freedom to work independently, to work together, and to do the
things they want to do.
Bill Heffner
VP of Software Engineering
the power suppl i es sat l oose on the l ower shel f of the car t. The softwar e
devel opment team r an a ti me-shar ed VMS system on the br eadboar d for a
shor t ti me, because i t became avai l abl e ar ound the ti me VMS had evol ved
suffi ci entl y to suppor t mul ti pl e user s. However , the br eadboar d was not
enti r el y r el i abl e because the oper ati ng speed was pushi ng the
l i mi ts of what coul d be handl ed wi th wi r e-wr ap constr ucti on.
The br eadboar d was r epl aced by the fi r st VAX-11/ 780 etched pr ototype.
The pr ototype was the fi r st machi ne bui l t wi th r eal par tsthe r eal fr ame,
power suppl i es, etch ci r cui t boar ds, etc. The onl y thi ng l acki ng was the
exter nal cabi net. Thi s pr ototype was not r epl aced wi th a pr oducti on
machi ne unti l wel l after VMS and the VAX-11/ 780 shi pped. The pr ototype
conti nued to be used for year s for stand-al one testi ng. Systems devel oped
after the VAX-11/ 780 never went thr ough the br eadboar d stage, but r ather
went di r ectl y to r eal etched ci r cui t boar ds, after extensi ve si mul ati on.
The softwar e devel oper s used the pr ototype to do thei r wor kwhi ch pr ovi ded
a cl osed l oop of usi ng what they wer e bui l di ng. Thi s str ategy of usi ng the
softwar e system to do the desi gn wor k hel ped them to pi npoi nt potenti al
pr obl ems as they pr ogr essed.
16
VMS engineers Dick Hustvedt and Ben Schreiber.
One of the VMS groups philosophies was that we lived
on the software that we were writing. Because if it wasnt
good enough for us, then it wasnt good enough yet for
our customers.
KathyMorse
VMS Engineer
All work and no play?
Not at DIGITAL!
Over the years, the VMS engineers
laughed together as well as worked
together. And so there were a whole
series of practical jokes that were
played. There were some guidelines:
You couldnt prevent people from get-
ting work done. You werent allowed
to do anything that would harm the
system or lose a days work. But any-
thing else was fair game.
Dave Cutler started the first VMS
April Fools jokes. One year, Andy
Goldstein replaced the line printer dri-
ver so that everything printed
out backwards. On another April 1,
the entire system message file
was replaced with joke messages
including ones like File not found.
Where did you leave it?
Once VMS engineer Trevor Porter
went back home to Australia on
vacation. When he returned, fellow
engineer Andy Goldstein had bolted
a panel in place where the cube
door was. Trevor walked to his
office, observed the situation, turned
to Andy and said, All right, wheres
the spanner?
17
Whos got t he red f lag?
The softwar e bui l d envi r onment pr ocess, whi ch i s what tr ansfor ms the
softwar e sour ce code i nto a r unnabl e system, al l owed onl y one per son
at a ti me to do a bui l d. If two peopl e tr i ed to do a bui l d at the same ti me,
they woul d over wr i te each other and pr oduce nothi ng useabl e. The
engi neer swho often wor ked i n an i ntense, heads-down modehad
no way of knowi ng i f another engi neer was wor ki ng on a bui l d. It was
i nevi tabl e that ear l y on, two engi neer s i n adj acent offi ces woul d tr y to
do bui l ds concur r entl y, thus destr oyi ng each other s wor k.
Bei ng a cr eati ve team, they came up wi th a cr eati ve sol uti on. As a
mechani sm for deter mi ni ng who was wor ki ng on bui l ds, a r ed fl ag wi th
a magneti c hol der was put up i n the cubi cl e of the per son usi ng the
si mul ator.
It was usual l y r efer r ed to as the mutex, i n r efer ence to a commonl y
used softwar e synchr oni zati on mechani sm. If an engi neer wanted to do
a bui l d, he or she found the fl ag and asked i ts cur r ent owner Can I have
the mutex? and i t woul d be thei r s as l ong as the fl ag hol der wasnt i n the
mi ddl e of a bui l d.
Developing t ools on t he f ly
Out of necessi ty, the team devel oped many of thei r own tool s as the
pr oj ect pr ogr essed. For per for mance eval uati on, the VMS engi neer s bui l t
the per for mance moni tor tool and then used the tool to measur e system
per for mance. One par t of the moni tor was a separ ate computer system
r unni ng on a PDP-11 that coul d act as a ti me-shar i ng wor kl oad. Usi ng that,
the engi neer s measur ed VMS on a number of di ffer ent mul ti -user wor k-
l oads to see how i t per for med for ti me-shar i ng.
Using what youre building
Ther e was a l ot of back and for th communi cati on between the har dwar e
and the softwar e engi neer s. The wr i ter s wer e al so usi ng the softwar e,
whi ch pr ovi ded a good cl osed l oop pr ocess. And that was the phi l osophy
behi nd i tto use i t and debug i t as the pr oj ect moved for war d.
Ensuri ng compat i bi l i t y
The devel opment systems for VMS wer e housed i n one l ar ge computer
r oom; most of i t was taken up by a huge dual -pr ocessor DECsystem-10
and a PDP-11/ 70 was shoehor ned i nto one si de of the r oom. Much of the
fi r st ver si on of VMS was wr i tten i n Macr o and the r est i n Bl i ss. Macr o
devel opment was done str i ctl y on the PDP-11, usi ng a cr oss-assembl er.
The assembl er obj ect modul es wer e then l i nked i nto executabl es on the
PDP-11 and wr i tten to a di sk whi ch the VMS engi neer s woul d then car r y
over to the VAX system i n the next r oom.
Roger Gourd passed around the
book The Mythical Man-Month by
Fred Brooks and almost all the team
members read it. Most of us already
had one operating system under our
belt, so Brooks discussion of the
second system effect struck home.
The second system effect results
from each engineer wanting to fix all
the mistakes and shortcomings of
their first system. Left unchecked,
the second system effect can cause
runaway complexity that can be dis-
astrous for
software quality and schedule.
A new term entered the program-
mers lexiconCreeping elegancea
process in which a design is succes-
sively refined to be increasingly com-
plete, eventually yielding a result that
collapses because of its size and
complexity. The entire software team
was very conscious of maintaining
the balance between producing a
functional, high quality product and
staying on schedule.
AndyGoldstein
VMS Engineer on original
development team
The DEC-10 was used to compi l e the VMS modul es wr i tten i n Bl i ss
because at the ti me the Bl i ss compi l er onl y r an on a DEC-10. The Bl i ss
code had to be tr anspor ted by tape to the PDP-11 to be l i nked.
Thi s pr ocess of wr i ti ng pr ogr ams i ni ti al l y r equi r ed a gr eat deal of ti me and
effor t. However , the new vi r tual memor y oper ati ng system was bui l t i n a
r el ati vel y shor t ti me by any cur r ent standar ds.
The VMS system ker nel and r el ated cr i ti cal functi on wer e wr i tten i n nati ve
mode usi ng the new VAX i nstr ucti on set. However , many uti l i ty functi ons
wer e si mpl y por ted fr om the RSX-11 oper ati ng system and so r an i n
compati bi l i ty mode the PDP-11 emul ati on mode. Besi des speedi ng up
the i mpl ementati on of these functi ons on VMS, thi s appr oach pr ovi ded an
effecti ve l i ve test of the VAX pl atfor m and VMS oper ati ng system
compati bi l i ty featur es.
The vi r tual memor y system softwar e pr ovi ded gr eater functi onal i ty than
had ever been seen befor e i n a mi ni computer. VAX and VMS al so suppor ted
networ ki ng capabi l i ti es as wel l as compati bi l i ty wi th PDP-11 thus enabl i ng
customer s r unni ng PDP-11 pr ogr ams to mi gr ate thei r appl i cati ons to the
new VAX and VMS systems qui ckl y and easi l y.
The VMS st rat egy
The VMS softwar e str ategy was based on devel opi ng a si ngl e VMS
oper ati ng system that woul d span the pr oduct r ange fr om l ow-end to
hi gh-end. VMS woul d offer ful l mai nfr ame capabi l i ti es al l owi ng concur r ent
batch pr ocessi ng, tr ansacti on pr ocessi ng, ti me-shar i ng, and l i mi ted
r eal -ti me pr ocessi ng.
Thi s single operating systemstr ategy behi nd VMS was a r eacti on to the
mul ti pl e oper ati ng systems of the PDP-11:
RT-11 for r eal -ti me and l abor ator y wor k
RSTS-11 for educati onal and smal l commer ci al ti me-shar i ng
RSX-11 for i ndustr i al and manufactur i ng contr ol
MUMPS-11 for the medi cal systems mar ket
DOS-11, the or i gi nal PDP-11 oper ati ng system, l ar gel y super seded
by the above.
18
That s not an
abandoned car
it s a VMS engineer s car
People worked a lot of overtime dur-
ing the creation of VMS. At one point,
we hired an engineer from California,
Ralph Weber. For the first week he
had a rental car and was living in a
hotel. He got there so early that he
parked in exactly the same spot
every morning, and he stayed late.
After a week, a security guard
thought the car had been aban-
doned and called the car rental
place to come and collect it.
That night Ralph went to leave, and
his car was gone. So he ran into the
security room shouting, My rental
cars been stolen! They started to
call the police and then, luckily,
another security guard came in and
said, No, no, we had that one towed
today because its been there a week
and we thought it had been aban-
doned.
Kathy Morse
VMS Engineer
VMS documentation set.
Whi l e each of the PDP-11 oper ati ng systems was tar geted to a par ti cul ar
mar ket segment, ther e wer e a l ot of cr oss-over sal es. At the same ti me, the
mul ti pl e oper ati ng systems wi th i ncompati bl e i nter faces di l uted the system
base for appl i cati ons. Any appl i cati on mi ght have to be i mpl emented i n
mul ti pl e ver si ons to r un on a l ar ge number of systems.
Ther efor e, the str ategy wi th VMS was to have a si ngl e oper ati ng system
that woul d be suffi ci entl y fl exi bl e, power ful , and effi ci ent to addr ess most
of the PDP-11 tar get mar kets.
Bet t ing t he business on VAX and VMS
Pr i or to devel opi ng the VAX system and VMS oper ati ng system, DI GITAL
oper ated accor di ng to a mul ti -pr oduct l i ne envi r onment. However , i n 1978,
DI GITAL adopted a vi si on cal l ed The VAX Str ategy whi ch woul d gui de the
company thr ough the next decade. Al though DI GITAL woul d conti nue
devel opment on the PDP-11 and DECsystem-10, the companys mai n
di r ecti on woul d be on VAX devel opment.
The VAX and VMS str ategy l ed to a consi stent message fr om DI GITAL:
One pl atfor m, one oper ati ng system, one networ k. Si mpl y put, DI GITAL
deci ded to bet the busi ness on VAX and VMSand VAX and VMS busi ness
began to skyr ocket.
Debugging in t he Blizzard of 78
On the first evening of the blizzard,
Andy Goldstein was working late on
the new VMS file structure. If he
couldnt make it home, he wasnt
worried. Hank Levy lived across the
road from the Mill, so anybody from
VMS who was really stuck would just
pound on his door and sleep on his
couch.
I hit a bad directory error and said,
Oh my God, Ive got a bug
in the file system. I was trying to col-
lect data on this, but the snow was
getting deeper and we lost power.
The whole state was closed for the
next week, but I drove to the Mill and
talked my way inside.
I powered up the machine, got
dumps of the failed directory,
and took them home with me.
I called Richie Larywho lived
across town from meand said,
Richie, I think theres a bug in the
microcode. And he said, Why dont
you come over. Ive got the microc-
ode listings here.I walked through
the snow over to his house. Richie
fished a six-inch binder out from
under his bed and we went through
it, and sure enough, we found the
bug and
fixed it.
AndyGoldstein
VMS Engineer
19
As the technical writer, my belief was that the technical writer is the
advocate for the customer. So I always put myself in the shoes of someone
who is trying to learn how to use the system, and wrote the documentation
accordingly.
The VMS Documentation Group grew from five people in 1977 to 45 in
1987, and the documentation set grew from 9,000 to 20,000 pages. It was
a massive effort.
Patti Anklam
Technical Documentation Writer
VMS Version 3 release party
on Cape Cod.
Rolling out t he f irst VAX and VMS syst ems
Roughl y 18 months after the desi gn team sat down to execute thei r pl an
for the new i nter acti ve ar chi tectur e, the fi r st machi ne r ol l ed off the
manufactur i ng fl oor and i nto a customer si te.
The fi r st VAX-11/ 780 was i nstal l ed at Car negi e Mel l on Uni ver si ty and was
r el eased to mor e than 50 customer s. In 1978, the VAX-11/ 780 became
accepted i nter nati onal l y wi th i nstal l ati ons at CERN i n Swi tzer l and and the
Max Pl anck Insti tute i n Ger many.
A major indust ry cont ribut ion
In October of 1977, DI GITAL made a si gni fi cant contr i buti on to the i ndustr y
by announci ng both a new ar chi tectur e har dwar e pr oduct and a new ar chi -
tectur e-based oper ati ng system. One
of the pr i mar y advances that the
VAX ar chi tectur e br ought to com-
puti ng was that i t had a pl an for the
i nter communi cati on of computer s at
the ar chi tectur al l evel . DI GITAL had
not onl y engi neer ed the capabi l i ty
for computer s to tal k to computer s
wi th homogeneous exi sti ng ar chi -
tectur es, but had pl anned for a com-
pl ete r ange of computer systems
fr om the per sonal wor kstati on
l evel up to the hi gh-per for mance
systemsal l havi ng a homogeneous
ar chi tectur e.
CHAPTER V Mar ket AcceptanceBeyond Expectati ons
20
President Ronald Reagan visits a DIGITAL
VAX manufacturing facility with DIGITAL
President/CEO, Ken Olsen.
Overcomi ng resi st ance t o change
When VAX and VMS systems became avai l abl e i n 1978, customer s wer e j ust
begi nni ng to under stand the need for a 32-bi t ar chi tectur e. Anal yst r epor ts
publ i shed after the i ntr oducti on of VAX and VMS system di scussed the si g-
ni fi cance of the 32-bi t ar chi tectur e.
Whi l e some for war d-thi nki ng customer s embr aced the advantages of the
32-bi t ar chi tectur eespeci al l y i n speci al i zed sci enti fi c appl i cati onsmany
wer e sti l l sati sfi ed wi th thei r cur r ent 16-bi t ar chi tectur es and di dnt thi nk
the l ar ger addr essi ng space was necessar y. Resi stance to change
i s al ways an obstacl e i n i ntr oduci ng new i deas, and the VAX pl atfor m
cer tai nl y r epr esented a change for customer s.
Migrat ing f rom PDP t o VAX
As customer s saw how effi ci entl y VAX and VMS wor ked i n thei r envi r on-
ments, acceptance for the new system gr ew over whel mi ngl y posi ti ve.
Or gani zati ons suddenl y pr ocl ai med, We ar e a VAX and VMS company
and focused al l thei r effor ts i n that di r ecti on.
The VAX system dr ew on year s of DI GITAL engi neer i ng exper i ence i n
devel opi ng the PDP fami l y of computer s. Wher ever possi bl e, the VAX
ar chi tectur e took advantage of exi sti ng PDP-11 technol ogy such as the
UNI BUSthus al l owi ng exi sti ng PDP-11 I / O technol ogy and pr oducts
to be used on the VAX systems.
Thus, the new VAX system appeal ed to the i nstal l ed base of PDP customer s
because of the bui l t-i n compatibility modewhi ch pr ovi ded an easy
mi gr ati on path for movi ng up to the new 32-bi t ar chi tectur e, whi l e sti l l
pr otecti ng thei r exi sti ng PDP i nvestment.
Woods meet ings
In 1983, DIGITAL began to hold
day-long, off-site meetings. Initially
these meetings were held at Ken
Olsens cottage deep in the woods
of Maine. Soon, these off-site strat-
egy meetings became known
throughout the company as woods
meetingsregardless of where they
were held.
21
Key success f act ors
32-bits at an affordable price
Al though the VAX-11/ 780 was not the fi r st 32-bi t system on the mar ket,
i t was the ear l i est computer that was capabl e of taki ng on l ar ge-scal e
pr obl ems at a r easonabl e pr i ce.
FORTRAN for the scientific world
The DI GITAL i nvestment i n VAX FORTRAN i s cr edi ted wi th some of the
VAX and VMS ar chi tectur es ear l y success i n the mar ketpl ace by gai ni ng a
l eader shi p r ol e i n the wor l d of sci enti fi c and techni cal computi ng.
Two aspects of VAX FORTRAN contr i buted to the ear l y success of the VAX.
Fi r st, the compi l er pr oduced excel l ent qual i ty, fast per for mi ng code. Si nce i t
was a ver y compl ete i mpl ementati on of FORTRAN, a FORTRAN pr ogr am
wr i tten for a competi tor s machi ne coul d easi l y be br ought over and r un on
a VAX system. Second, the i nter acti ve, sour ce-l evel debuggi ng al l owed the
pr ogr ammer to i nter act wi th the pr ogr am i n FORTRAN, r ather than
machi ne l anguage.
VAX systems became the fi r st wor khor se for numer i cal and sci enti fi c com-
puti ng, suppor ti ng such power -hungr y appl i cati ons as computer -ai ded
desi gn, fl i ght, oper ator tr ai ni ng for nucl ear and conventi onal fuel power
pl ants, power moni tor i ng and contr ol systems for el ectr i c uti l i ti es, and sei s-
mi c data r educti on.
Scalability
By desi gn, the VAX ar chi tectur e was scal abl e, meani ng that code wr i tten
on smal l machi nes woul d r un unchanged on l ar ger machi nes. Thi s made
softwar e devel opment affor dabl e, because the concept coul d be tested on a
smal l machi ne befor e maki ng a maj or har dwar e i nvestment. Appl i cati ons
wer e not l i mi ted to a par ti cul ar machi ne. Once an appl i cati on was wr i tten,
i t coul d r un on any si ze VAX system wi thout changes. Scal abi l i ty al l owed
customer s to gr ow thei r VAX systems as they neededwi thout wor r yi ng
about thei r softwar e i nvestments. It al so mi ni mi zed mai ntenance and
suppor t costs for softwar e.
Connectivity
Another si gni fi cant success factor was the connecti vi ty str ategyi nter con-
necti ng computer s vi a networ ks. DI GITAL had devel oped DECnet i n 1973,
and suppor t for thi s networ ki ng softwar e was an i ntegr al par t of the VAX
str ategy. The abi l i ty to connect computer s gave mi ni computer s the power of
mai nfr ames. Di str i buted computi ng was an emer gi ng concept and DI GITAL
was i n the l eader shi p posi ti on.
The VAX and VMS ar chi tectur e al l owed for networ ki ng that was mor e
effi ci ent than i n other systems at the ti me. Networ ki ng al l owed DI GITAL
to expand the appl i cati on base for VAX pl atfor m and br oaden i ts mar ket
base beyond the sci enti fi c and i nto the commer ci al wor l d.
22
VAX and VMS play a part in the
Space Shuttle development.
Software capabilities
Wi th the i ncr eased br eadth of softwar e offer i ngs of VMS V2.0,
DI GITAL moved i nto the busi ness mar ketpl ace.
These factor sal ong wi th the extensi ve softwar e l i br ar y and other i nter ac-
ti ve featur es of VMSmade i t the best softwar e devel opment envi r onment
i n the i ndustr y. In addi ti on, the r obustness and r el i abi l i ty of even the ear l y
VMS ver si ons ensur ed that a customer s pr ogr ammi ng staff spent thei r ti me
wor ki ng on thei r pr ogr ams r ather than fi gur i ng out what had gone wr ong
wi th the oper ati ng system.
In shor t, the expanded addr ess space, sophi sti cati on of the oper ati ng
system, i nher ent networ ki ng capabi l i ti es, and affor dabl e pr i ce wer e
the i ntegr al factor s i n the success of thi s new technol ogy.
23
By 1979, the companys sal es r ev-
enues topped the $2 bi l l i on mar k
for the fi r st ti me. DI GITAL was a
maj or pl ayer i n the wor l dwi de
mi ni computer mar ket, and was
mar keti ng i ts systems, per i pher al s,
and softwar e i n 35 countr i es
ar ound the wor l d.
Thi s success was attr i buted to Ken
Ol sens or i gi nal str ategy of sel l i ng
smal l , easy-to-use computer s to a
wi de r ange of customer s. Resear ch
sci enti sts, accountants, banks,
and manufactur er s al i ke coul d use
these systems.
By the 1980s, DI GITAL had
establ i shed i tsel f as the number -two
computer company behi nd I BM.
At thi s ti me, VMS Ver si on 2.0
commer ci al softwar e was i ntr o-
duced. Thi s second gener ati on of
VMS pr ovi ded to the commer ci al
mar ketpl ace the same l eader shi p
that FORTRAN di d for the sci enti fi c
wor l d. By the spr i ng r el ease i n 1980,
Ver si on 2 had user s at 1,400 si tes.
Wi th thi s announcement, DI GITAL
made a commi tment to the commer -
ci al mar ketpl ace and posi ti oned the
VAX system as the fl agshi p pr oduct
for new commer ci al appl i cati ons.
The company al so emphasi zed
networ ki ng and di str i buted data
pr ocessi ng concepts as ongoi ng
effor ts.
Expandi ng t he f ami l y
The i ni ti al evol uti on of the VAX
fami l y was downwards i n si ze and
pri ce. Thi s was a very del i berate
strategy that was establ i shed when
the VAX archi tecture was fi rst con-
cei ved; the sl ogan was $250K and
DOWN. Even though the DEC-10
and DEC-20 systems were sti l l goi ng
strong , the i ntent was that the VAX
system woul d provi de a repl acement
for hi gh-end PDP-11 systemswi th-
out encroachi ng on the DEC-10/ 20
busi ness.
CHAPTER VI Movi ng i nto Commer ci al Mar kets
24
DIGITAL President/CEO, Ken Olsen addresses
customers to deliver new product announce-
ment.
DIGITAL spreads the word on the ease of scalability with VAX and VAXcluster systems.
Thus the fi rst two successors to the VAX-11/ 780 were smal l er, l ess expensi ve
machi nes. The fi rst successor to the 780 was the VAX-11/ 750. The VAX-11/ 750
was bui l t of semi -custom LSI l ogi c known as gate arrays. Each gate array
chi p consi sted of about 400 standard l ogi c functi ons. By i nterconnecti ng the
basi c functi ons, each chi p was speci al i zed to provi de the needed functi ons
of the 750 CPU.
The VAX-11/ 730 was the thi r d member of the VAX fami l y, i ntr oduced i n
1982. The VAX-11/ 730 was bui l t fr om off-the-shel f bi t sl i ce mi cr opr ocessor
and pr ogr ammed ar r ay technol ogy.
More power, please!
Meanwhi l e, some customer s wer e begi nni ng to cl amor for mor e power ful
VAX systems. In an effor t to meet thi s demand, DI GITAL pr oduced the
VAX-11/ 782. Thi s system was bui l t wi th two standar d VAX-11/ 780 pr oces-
sor s usi ng a shar ed memor y. By suppor ti ng the VAX-11/ 782, VMS took i ts
fi r st step i nto mul ti pr ocessi ngfor eshadowi ng the symmetr i c mul ti pr ocess-
i ng capabi l i ti es of the VAX 6000 ser i es year s l ater.
Thi s system was fol l owed by the VAX-11/ 785a r e-engi neer ed VAX-11/ 780
that used the same desi gn wi th upgr aded componentswhi ch al l owed the
CPU to be r un at a 50% faster cl ock r ate. Both the VAX-11/ 782 and
VAX-11/ 785 wer e desi gned to br i dge the l ong gap between the 780
and the 8600.
These new member s of the VAX fami l ycombi ned wi th ever -i mpr ovi ng
networ ki ng capabi l i ti espr ovi ded si gni fi cant and var i ed confi gur ati on
possi bi l i ti es for DI GITAL customer s.
Increased soft ware capabilit ies
The backbone of the new VMS
commercial software capabilities
was represented by six new
products:
COBOL was the flagship product
BASIC was interactive
and fast
Multikey ISAM provided effective
data management and
was usable from all languages
Integrated DECnet enabled
multi-system communication
DATATRIEVE V2 provided
online inquiry and retrieval
Form Management System (FMS)
allowed for data entry and trans-
action-oriented
applications.
This extended the range of
capability and powerenabling
commercial customers to distribute
their data processing more easily
and efficiently.
25
26
DI GITAL r ecogni zed ear l y on that i ts customer s needed a means of
connecti ng var i ous systems and coor di nati ng thei r capabi l i ti es. To addr ess
thi s need, the company began r esear ch i n thi s ar ea as ear l y as 1972, when
i t devel oped a mul ti pr ocessor that woul d combi ne a number of mi ni com-
puter s to obtai n the power of a l ar ge mai nfr ame. Thi s was accompl i shed
thr ough networ ki ng.
By 1973, DI GITAL for med a gr oup to di r ect the desi gn and i mpl ementati on
of a networ ki ng pr oj ect; i ts goal was to achi eve absol ute compati bi l i ty and
i nter connecti vi ty acr oss al l computer fami l i es. The companys i ni ti al effor ts
r esul ted i n the DI GITAL Networ k Ar chi tectur e that i mpl emented a l ayer ed
pr otocol appr oach. Thi s method of connecti ng systems was r ecogni zed as
state-of-the-ar t technol ogy and put DI GITAL i n the l eader shi p posi ti on i n
the i ndustr y.
DECnet
In 1974, DI GITAL i ntr oduced
DECnet, the i ndustr ys fi r st gener al -
pur pose networ ki ng pr oduct for
di str i buted computi ng. One goal
was to make networ ks affor dabl e
so that customer s coul d i mpl ement
them mor e wi del y.
DECnet for VAX and VMS V1.0 was
avai l abl e for the fi r st customer shi p-
ment of the VMS oper ati ng system,
and si gni fi cantl y contr i buted to the
success of the VAX-11/ 780 system.
Unl i ke ear l i er networ ki ng
pr oductswhi ch focused on con-
necti ng ter mi nal s to hostsDECnet
pr ovi ded peer -to-peer networ ki ng
for the fi r st ti me. Thi s was a maj or
step towar d the cl i ent/ ser ver
computi ng model . DI GITAL had devel oped the best and l east expensi ve
di str i buted computi ng sol uti on and became an i ndustr y l eader wi th thi s
technol ogy.
DECnet l i nked DI GITAL systems together i n a fl exi bl e networ k that coul d
be adapted to changi ng r equi r ements. It pr ovi ded di r ect communi cati on
among computer s at the same or gani zati onal l evel , and had no hi er ar chi cal
r equi r ements or pr er equi si te host pr ocessor s. DI GITAL networ ks wer e
modul ar and fl exi bl eas opposed to I BMs r i gi d, hi er ar chi cal pr oducts
and coul d connect computer s fr om other vendor s, pr ovi di ng a degr ee of
compati bi l i ty among di ffer ent computer systems that was unmatched i n
the i ndustr y.
CHAPTER VI I Networ ki ng
Over the year s, DECnet evol ved thr ough fi ve r el eases, each desi gned to
wor k wi th the next and pr evi ous phase. DI GITAL al so contr i buted to the
maj or networ ki ng standar ds, i ncor por ati ng key standar ds such as OSI and
TCP/ I P i nto DECnet.
Ent er Et hernet
Ether net communi cati ons capabi l i ti es wer e i ncor por ated i nto DECnet
Phase IV, al l owi ng DECnet user s to extend thei r networ ks wi th l ocal ar ea
capabi l i ti es of Ether net.
The er a of the Ether net br ought an enti r el y new concept to networ ki ng.
DI GITAL set the standar ds wi th Xer ox and Intel by establ i shi ng Ether net
as the i ndustr y choi ce for l ocal ar ea networ ks. The thr ee compani es j oi ntl y
defi ned the Ether net standar d, whi ch l ed to the depl oyment of l ocal ar ea
networ ks. Ether net became the medi um-speed but l ong-di stance networ k,
connecti ng components as far apar t as a ki l ometer.
CI, NI, and BI int erconnect s
DI GITAL coi ned the ter ms CI, NI, and BI as par t of an effor t to r ati onal i ze
the companys str ategy for i nter connecti ng the components of computer
systems at di ffer ent l evel s of i mpl ementati on.
NINetwor k Inter connect. Thi s was the hi ghest l evel i nter connect,
connecti ng computer systems i n a networ k. NI qui ckl y became synony-
mous wi th Ether net. Ether net al l owed the constr ucti on of l ocal ar ea
networ ks of up to a thousand connecti ons and a mi l e and hal f i n si ze.
CICl uster Inter connect. The CI al so connected i ndi vi dual computer sys-
tems. In contr ast to the NI, i t al l owed much smal l er confi gur ati ons: up to
16 systems spr ead over a 90-foot r adi us. What the CI l acked i n scal e i t
made up for i n speedal l owi ng communi cati ons over 10 ti mes as fast as
the NI. DI GITAL devel oped stor age contr ol l er s that connected to the CI,
pr ovi di ng the basi s for cl uster ed VMS systems (see next secti on).
BIBackpl ane Inter connect. The backpl ane was used to connect compo-
nents of a computer system wi thi n a si ngl e cabi net. The BI was bui l t to be a
faster r epl acement for the UNI BUS, used by al l PDP-11s and the i ni ti al VAX
systems. The VAX 8200 and 8300 used the BI as thei r nati ve i nter connect
(i .e., both I / O and mai n memor y). Later VAXes (other 8000 and 6000 ser i es)
used the BI str i ctl y to connect to I / O contr ol l er s.
SIStor age Inter connect. A standar di zed connecti on between a stor age
devi ce (di sk or tape) and i ts contr ol l er.
XIEver ythi ng Inter connect. A futur e i nter connect that woul d r epl ace NI
and CI, bei ng both faster and l ar ger than ei ther. Somethi ng l i ke the XI was
ul ti matel y r eal i zed wi th FDDI, but di spl aced nei ther the CI nor NI.
The next l ogi cal step of networ ki ng was computer cl uster i nga concept
that DI GITAL pi oneer ed. Today, the company conti nues i ts posi ti on as the
i ndustr y l eader i n cl uster i ng.
27
Five phases of DECnet
Phase I: Supported point-to-point
(directly wired connections) and task-
to-task (customer applications could
be coded to talk to each other over
the networking protocols).
Phase II: Added remote file access
and general task access (i.e., an
application could invoke general
command procedures on a remote
system). This version of DECnet was
supported by VMS V1.0, thus VMS
had remote file access built into the
base file system from
day one.
Phase III: Added routing, which
meant you no longer had to have
a directly wired connection between
two systems to allow them to interact
via DECnet. Rather, network traffic
could be forwarded between two sys-
tems by one or more
intervening routing nodes. It also pro-
vided SET HOST (the ability to log
into a remote system interactively)
and MAILthe beginnings of corpo-
rate electronic mail.
Phase IV: Added Ethernet support.
Ethernet eliminated the requirement
for point-to-point wiring, allowing
many systems to be connected to a
single wire in a Local Area Network.
Phase IV also provided a larger
address and the concept of areas
(analogous to telephone area codes),
thus allowing a network to grow to as
large as 65,000 nodes.
Phase V: Incorporated OSI standard
networking into DECnet. Supported
unlimited address space/ nodes
when using OSI addressing;
supported 100,000 nodes if
using large local files.
The VAX 8600
In October 1984, DI GITAL announced the VAX 8600. Thi s system mar ked
the begi nni ng of the second gener ati on of VAX machi nesand a new
mi l estone i n the VAX str ategy. The VAX 8600 offer ed up to 4.2 ti mes
the per for mance of the VAX-11/ 780 and i ncr eased I / O capabi l i ty whi l e
mai ntai ni ng I / O subsystem compati bi l i ty wi th the VAX-11/ 780 and the
VAX-11/ 785 Synchr onous Backpl ane Inter connect (SBI).
It was the fi r st VAX i mpl ementati on i n ECL (Emi tted Coupl ed Logi c) tech-
nol ogy and the fi r st to i ncl ude macr opi pel i ni ng. The VAX 8600 r epr esented
the confl uence of many new concepts and fur ther r efi ned the sol i d engi -
neer i ng of ear l i er systems. It was packaged wi th an extensi ve por tfol i o of
VMS softwar e pr oducts that coul d r un on the VAX 8600, as wel l on al l the
ear l i er model s.
CHAPTER VI I I The Second VAX Gener ati on
28
The VAX 8600 team.
One plat form, one operat ing syst em, one net work
While DIGITAL had considered as many as eight different approaches to networking,
the company crystallized its approach to networking in 1983 and announced its net-
working strategy at DECworld 83. That strategy was one platform (VAX), one operat-
ing system (VMS), and one networking product (Ethernet).
Happy 10t h Birt hday,
VAX and VMS
The 10th Anniversary of the VAX plat-
form and VMS operating
system in 1987 was celebrated
at DECUS with a VAX-at-10 Dinner
Speech. The company discussed VAX
architecture goals and presented an
overview of the development of VMS.
DIGITAL noted VAX architecture had
achieved one of its initial goalsthat
of providing a price range span of
1000:1. The company achieved that
goal in February of 1987
with the announcement of the
VAXstation 2000, priced at $4,600;
while the VAX 8978 was available for
$5,240,000. The company
also discussed how VAX and VMS
grew from FORTRAN-only in 1977
to 101 layered products
in one system in 1987.
29
VAX production line and test station.
From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, DIGITAL moved from being what I
would call a niche mini-computer company to the second largest computer
company in the world. And that growth was entirely driven by our VAX
and VMS business. From that standpoint, VAX and VMS is one of the really
great success stories in the history of computing, in terms of totally trans-
forming a company and totally transforming an industry and playing a
major role as one of the truly major computer architectures. Certainly VAX
and VMS has been a driving architecture for ten years, and is still a very
important architecture at age 20.
Bill Strecker
Chief Technical Officer, VP, CST
A new high end: t he VAX 8800
In Januar y 1986, DI GITAL i ntr oduced i ts top-of-the-l i ne VAX 8800 and
the mi dr ange VAX 8300 and VAX 8200. These VAX systems wer e the fi r st
VAX systems to suppor t dual pr ocessor s. Each machi ne i ncor por ated a new
hi gh-per for mance I / O bus, the VAXBI. The hi gh-per for mance VAX 8800
achi eved appl i cati on thr oughput that was two to thr ee ti mes faster than
the VAX 8600.
A year l ater , the company i ntr oduced the VAX 8978 and 8974, the most
power ful systems fr om DI GITAL to date, offer i ng up to 50 ti mes the
power of the VAX-11/ 780. Both machi nes i ncl uded the new 2.5 Gbyte
SA582 Stor age Ar r ay fr om DI GITAL. Combi ned wi th the HSC70 I / O
pr ocessor and the VAXBI bus, the SA482 del i ver ed mai nfr ame-cl ass I / O
subsystem per for mance ar r ay and l ar ge stor age capaci ty.
30
Don Harbert and Pauline Nist accept
The PC Week corporate satisfaction award
for the VAX 6000 from Susan Pasieka for
the second year in a row. Summer 1992
Bill Demmer with 2nd generation VAX family members.
Ongoing engineering challenge: Evolving t he archit ect ure
By al l standar ds, the VAX and VMS ar chi tectur e was ver y stabl e fr om the
l ate 1970s to the 1980s. The r easons for thi s stabi l i ty wer e two-fol d. Fi r st,
because the ar chi tectur e was so extensi vel y engi neer ed, i t di dnt r equi r e
any ar chi tectur al changes over that ten-year per i od of ti me. Second, i t
offer ed vi r tual l y ever ythi ng a customer mi ght want. The ar chi tectur e had
been desi gned for l ongevi ty, and i t succeeded i n that goal .
Over a 10-year ti me per i od, the pr oduct l i ne br oadened fr om a si ngl e
VAX-11/ 780 to a whol e fami l y of pr oducts that offer ed conti nual l y
i mpr oved per for mance at a l ower cost. The next engi neer i ng chal l enge
was to make successi vel y faster i mpl ementati ons of the ar chi tectur e
at a l ower cost.
Whi l e some devel opment teams wer e wor ki ng on the tr adi ti onal VAX
systems, other s wer e devel opi ng a new br eed of chi p-based systems,
whi ch eventual l y became the mai n l i ne of DI GITALs pr oducts.
The VAX 6000 was the first volume SMP
VAX. In the first six weeks of production,
there were 500 units shipped. The VAX sys-
tem was the so-called tornado of that time
framethe market just sucked them up. The shipments
grew from a rate of zero to 6,000 units a year in about five
months, which continued for a couple of years.
31
VAX assembly line.
VAX 6000
When we announced the new VAX
and showcased it at DECUS, cus-
tomers would come up and ask, What
is that? We told them that this is a
new VAX. They were pleasantly
surprised.
Our customers loved their VAX sys-
tems. They just put them in a closet
and forgot about themtheyre that
reliable. Its a tribute to the hardware,
the architecture, and the software,
because its bullet-proof. The
Catamount was proof that DIGITAL
continues to support its Installed Base
customers.
Ed Yee
Senior VAX Product Manager
VAX 8 6 0 0
VAX 8 0 0 0
ALPHA AXP 2 1 0 0
MicroVAX I I & MicroVAX 2 0 0 0
1977-1997 ...
VAX-1 1 /7 8 2
VAX 8 6 5 0
VAXs tation I
AlphaSe rve r 4 1 0 0
VAX 6 2 3 0
VAX-1 1 /7 3 0
VAX-1 1 /7 8 0
VAX Family
VAX 6 2 0 0
and beyond
VAXs tation 2 0 0 0
AlphaSe rve r 8 2 0 0
VAX-1 1 /7 5 0
VAX 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 /3 0 0
Bill Demmer and the VAX Family
VAX-1 1 /7 8 5
VAX-1 1 /7 3 0
VAX-1 1 /7 5 0 Family
VAXft 3 0 0 0
VAX Family
Root s of t he DIGITAL semiconduct or group
The i ncepti on of the DI GITAL semi conductor gr oup occur r ed i n the ear l y
1970s wi th the devel opment of the LSI-11 for the PDP fami l y of computer s.
DI GITAL desi gned the chi p and par tner ed wi th other compani es for
fabr i cati on. By the l ate 1970s, technol ogi cal advances i n semi conductor s
had made chi ps mor e power ful and l ess costl y to pr oduce. It became
cl ear that semi conductor technol ogy was i mper ati ve i n or der to r emai n
competi ti ve i n the computer i ndustr y.
Developing t he V-11:
The f irst VAX chi p
In 1981, an advanced devel opment
team expl or ed ways to bootstr ap
capabi l i ti es i n semi conductor s and
desi gn a ful l -scal e VAX on a chi p.
Thi s pr oj ect, V-11, was i ntended to
be a ful l -scal e VAX CPU, i mpl ement-
ed wi th state-of-the-ar t semi conduc-
tor technol ogyN Channel or
NMOS. As such, i t r equi r ed four di f-
fer ent chi ps i n the i mpl ementati on.
As the pr oj ect moved for war d, i t
became cl ear that mi cr ocomputer
systems wer e goi ng to be bui l t ver y
di ffer entl y fr om the way the V-11
was bei ng bui l t. Mi cr ocomputer
systems wer e goi ng to be based on
si ngl e chi p mi cr opr ocessor s ai med
at a dr amati cal l y l ower pr i ce.
DI GITAL addr essed the questi on
of whether the VAX desi gn coul d be
tur ned fr om bei ng a mi ni computer
ar chi tectur e i mpl emented i n si l i con
i nto a tr ue mi cr opr ocessor ar chi tec-
tur e that coul d be competi ti ve wi th
i ndustr y mi cr opr ocessor s. The
company deci ded to do the l atter.
CHAPTER I X Putti ng the VAX on a Chi p
32
VAX quality control inspection of VAX 8600
CPU board.
VAX syst ems earn t heir st ripes
VAX systemsdue to their perfor-
mance, network capabilities, and
scalabilityfound their way into many
military and Department of Defense
applications. Developers developed
military/ DoD programs for
Command, Control, Communication,
and Intelligence (C
3
I)
applications. The highly scalable VAX
and OpenVMS architecture per-
formed well in the computer rooms
and back lines. But there was a need
to bring the VAX technology closer to
the harsh environment of the battle
front.
United Technologies Norden
Systems, a prime contractor located
in New Hampshire, licensed the VAX
architecture and developed a milita-
rized version of the VAX on a chip
called the MIL VAX II. The
systems cost was five times that of
a commercial VAX system, but ran
significantly faster than its
civilian brother. This system met mili-
tary environmental testing
standards, including temperature,
vibration, shock, salt, fog, dust,
explosive atmosphere, and
humidity. MIL VAX II was suited for
database management, command,
control, and intelligence operations
aboard ships and airplanes and
in-land installations.
Over the years, other VAX systems
have been ruggedized by many
third-party DoD contractors for use in
less severe military applications.
These systems were used on
shipboard and mobile applications
where they had to withstand the
rigors of shock and vibration.
33
The V-11 r esul ted i n the VLSI VAX chi p, whi ch was shi pped i n the VAX
8200 and 8300 ser i es systems. The V-11 was r epl aced by the Mi cr oVAX chi p,
but i t pr ovi ded the desi gn technol ogy, basi c ar chi tectur e, and many of the
bui l di ng bl ocks that made up Mi cr oVAX.
Designing t he MicroVAX: The f irst chi p-based VAX
The V-11 and the Mi cr oVAX I wer e devel oped mor e or l ess concur r entl y.
The VAX-11/ 750 was the fi r st DI GITAL system to be desi gned wi th LSI
semi conductor technol ogy, usi ng gate ar r ays. After the 750, DI GITAL
desi gned the Mi cr oVAX Ione of the fi r st DI GITAL pr oj ects to i ncl ude
si l i con compi l er swi th the consul ti ng hel p of Car ver Meade, a pi oneer i n
i ntegr ated ci r cui t desi gn. Bui l di ng on the exper i ence of the Mi cr oVAX I,
the company soon fol l owed wi th the mor e power ful Mi cr oVAX I I.
Whi l e the V-11 was desi gned as a ful l VAX i mpl ementati on, the Mi cr oVAX I
was desi gned as a VAX subset. The Mi cr oVAX I system was devel oped
i n the companys Seattl e faci l i ty, headed by Dave Cutl er. Because the
Mi cr oVAX I was a much si mpl er desi gn than the V-11, and because of the
use of the si l i con compi l er tool s, i t was compl eted befor e the V-11.
DI GITAL expl or ed the opti on of havi ng one of the i ndustr ys semi conductor
compani es pr oduce the chi p, but deci ded to do the wor k i nter nal l y because
of the compl exi ty of the task and the aggr essi ve schedul e. Thi s pr oposal
was consi der ed r adi cal because i t pl aced a gr eat deal of fai th i n the then
fl edgl i ng chi p or gani zati on for both desi gn and manufactur i ng.
Int roducing t he f irst VAX you can st eal
The Mi cr oVAX pr oj ect was l aunched i n Jul y of 1982 and the si l i con was
fi ni shed on Febr uar y 4th of 1984j ust 19 months l ater. It was an achi eve-
ment that was unpr ecedented i n the i ndustr y. The enti r e semi conductor
or gani zati on r al l i ed ar ound thi s effor t and gave the chi p top pr i or i ty i n
ter ms of fabr i cati on and debuggi ng. Thus, they wer e abl e to demonstr ate
the chi p r unni ng VMS by August of 1984, fi el d test the system i n l ate 1984,
and shi p i t i n May of 1985.
Dr asti cal l y di ffer ent fr om any of the ear l i er VAX systems, the Mi cr oVAX I I
system was wi l dl y successful . It was the fi r st VAX under $20,000. Commenti ng
on i ts unpr ecedented affor dabi l i ty and si ze, Ken Ol sen cal l ed i t the fi r st
VAX you can steal .
Bob Supnik had come up with this wonderful scheme to build a VAX on a
chip, which became the MicroVAX I I chip, ultimately.
Jesse Lipcon
Senior VP, UNIX and OpenVMS Systems Business Unit
Building on t he success of t he
MicroVAX
The success of the Mi cr oVAX I I set
the cour se of devel opment for the
VAX chi p fami l y for the r est of the
1980s. By r educi ng the VAX CPU to
such a smal l package and expl oi ti ng
semi conductor technol ogy, DI GITAL
was abl e to conti nual l y i mpr ove
per for mance at a dr amati c r ate.
After the i ntr oducti on of the
Mi cr oVAX I I, the companys
har dwar e and softwar e engi neer s wor ked together to add back four mor e
i nstr ucti ons out of the commer ci al i nstr ucti on set, and the COBOL desi gn-
er s cr eated a ver si on of the compi l er that di dnt r equi r e the compl ex
deci mal i nstr ucti ons that had been l eft out.
The Mi cr oVAX I I pr oj ect woul d not have been possi bl e i f the VMS gr oup
had not vi gor ousl y suppor ted the whol e concept fr om the outset. When
Mi cr oVAX was fi r st put together , i t was a mor e dr asti c depar tur e fr om the
VAX ar chi tectur e than the fi nal desi gnpar ti cul ar l y wi th i ts si mpl i fi ed for m
of memor y management. But the or i gi nal VAX memor y management was
r ei ntr oduced back to Mi cr oVAX I I to make i t a machi ne wi th compl ete
functi onal i ty.
The Mi cr oVAX I I was the system that put the VAX CPU on a chi p. Wi th
power ful VAX vi r tual memor y, 32-bi t computi ng power , and softwar e
compati bi l i ty acr oss al l VAX pr ocessor s, the Mi cr oVAX I I mi cr osystem
pr ovi ded functi onal i ty and fl exi bi l i ty that was unpar al l el ed i n the i ndustr y.
Skyrocket ing sales
DI GITAL was showi ng the l ar gest vol umes of VAX systems sal es ever. Up
to that poi nt, a hi ghl y successful VAX system sol d 2,000 uni ts i n i ts l i feti me.
Mi cr oVAX sol d 20,000 uni ts i n i ts fi r st year.
The VAXst at ion 2000
The VAXstati on 2000 was a step down i n si ze fr om the Mi cr oVAX I I. Li ke
the Mi cr oVAX I I system, i t was bui l t ar ound the Mi cr oVAX I I chi p. Wher e
the Mi cr oVAX I I was housed i n a smal l , desk-si de cabi net and suppor ted
a var i ety of PDP-11 per i pher al devi ces, the VAXstati on 2000 came i n a
shoebox-si zed cabi net. Al l the essenti al functi onsCPU, gr aphi cs di spl ay
contr ol l er , di sk contr ol l er , and two ser i al por ts wer e i ntegr ated on a si ngl e
ci r cui t boar d. Its per i pher al s wer e l i mi ted to a keyboar d, moni tor , and
mouse, pl us up to two fi xed di sks, and a fl oppy di sk and tape dr i ve. In
r etur n for those l i mi tati ons, i t del i ver ed near VAX-11/ 780 per for mance for
a $5,000 entr y pr i ce. Customer s cal l ed i t a MI P on a sti ck.
34
In i ts fi r st year , the VAXstati on 2000 sol d 60,000 systems. Thi s
demonstr ated the pr i nci pl e of el asti ci tyshowi ng that i f you have a
capabi l i ty and you br i ng i ts pr i ce down, you enhance i ts mar ketabi l i ty.
Now, wi th unpr ecedented affor dabi l i ty, ever ybody wanted a VAX.
CVAX
The companys second chi p was cal l ed CVAXthe C stood for CMOS.
A conver si on i n technol ogy fr om the ear l i er NMOS (N channel , metal
oxi de semi conductor ) to CMOS (compl ementar y metal oxi de semi -
conductor ) was due to the mar kets r el entl ess cl i mbi ng power
r equi r ements.
Thi s second-gener ati on VLSI VAX mi cr opr ocessor offer ed 2.5 to 3.5
ti mes the power of i ts pr edecessor. It was the companys fi r st i nter nal l y
manufactur ed CMOS mi cr opr ocessor. Hi gh per for mance came fr om
featur es such as a macr o-i nstr ucti on pi pel i ne, 1 K Byte onchi p
datacache, and a 28 entr y onchi p tr ansl ati on buffer.
The CVAX chi p was al so much mor e compl i cated than the Mi cr oVAX
chi p. The engi neer s had to devel op the CPU/ Fl oati ng Poi nt functi onal i -
ty i n VLSI and devel op separ ate VLSI chi ps for Memor y Contr ol , the
Q-Bus Inter face, and a Suppor t Chi p whi ch i ncl uded the Ti me of Year
Cl ock and Ser i al Li ne Inter faces. The number and compl exi ty of these
chi ps added si gni fi cant chal l enges to the pr oj ect.
The CVAX chi p was i ntr oduced i n the Mi cr oVAX 3500 and 3600
systems i n September 1978. Another CVAX-based system, the
VAX 6000 pl atfor m, was announced Apr i l 1988.
Incorporat i ng SMP
The CVAX-based VAX 6000 ser i es was the companys fi r st ventur e
i nto symmetr i c mul ti pr ocessi ng (SMP).
DI GITAL bel i eved that SMP woul d requi re teari ng VMS up by the roots
and starti ng over agai n. However, DI GITAL engi neers found a si mpl er
approach. The pl aces where VMS di d i nterl ocki ng agai nst i nterrupts
were l ocated and determi ned to be the poi nts where VMS had to put i n
a more formal l ock structure for mul ti processors. A very smal l team
produced a worki ng prototype of VMS SMP i n ni ne months.
SMP was i ntr oduced i n VMS ver si on 5.0, announced Apr i l 1988.
35
The sense I always had was that there were four key technical visionaries at
the beginning of MicroVAX: Dave Cutler, with his creation of the MicroVAX
I system for early software development; Bob Supnik, who headed up
MicroVAX chip development and also wrote the microcode; J esse Lipcon
who headed up MicroVAX I I Server Development; and Dick Hustvedt, who
drove the MicroVMS Software Strategy.
JayNichols
Computer Special Systems, Manager of Engineering
The VAX 6000 and plug-in power upgrades
Intr oduced i n Apr i l of 1988, the VAX 6000 system was the most successful
mi dr ange system i n the companys hi stor y, wi th the fastest ti me-to-mar ket
and the most uni ts sol d.
The most si gni fi cant attr i bute of the VAX 6000 was that i t i ntr oduced the
concept of r api d technol ogy-based upgr ades. Wi th pr evi ous DI GITAL
systems, i t wasnt possi bl e to i ncr ease power si mpl y by r epl aci ng pr ocessor
boar ds. The VAX 6000 i ntr oduced the concept of pl ug-and-pl ay. In other
wor ds, as a faster pr ocessor became avai l abl e the customer coul d unpl ug
the ol d pr ocessor , pl ug i n the new pr ocessor , and the or i gi nal equi pment
woul d never have to be thr own away. Thi s al l owed customer s to i ncr ease
power as they neededand pr otect thei r i nvestments i n har dwar e and soft-
war e.
Ri gel
The CVAX chi p was soon fol l owed by the Ri gel chi p, the companys thi r d
32-bi t mi cr opr ocessor. DI GITAL engi neer s consi der ed two opti ons for thi s
chi p. One pr oposal was to base the Ri gel chi p on the VAX 8800, whi ch was
the companys most successful machi ne. The other pr oposal was to pr oduce
a mor e el abor ate desi gn that woul d have r equi r ed mul ti pl e chi ps and mor e
coor di nati on, thus i nvol vi ng hi gher r i sk but hi gher per for mance.
Ul ti matel y, DI GITAL chose to r epl i cate the ci r cui t desi gn of the 8800 CPU
boar d on a si ngl e chi pRi gel .
The Ri gel chi p was manufactur ed i n 1.5-mi cr on CMOS technol ogy.
Intr oduced i n Jul y 1989, the Ri gel chi p shi pped i n the VAX 6400 system
and l ater , i n the VAX 4000 system. Ri gel al so i ncl uded the fi r st i mpl ementa-
ti on of the vector extensi on of the VAX ar chi tectur e.
Mari ah
In October 1990, DI GITAL i ntr oduced the Mar i ah chi p set, whi ch shi pped
i n the VAX 6500. An i mpr ovement on the Ri gel chi p set, the Mar i ah chi p
set was manufactur ed i n 1.0-mi cr on CMOS technol ogy. The VAX 6500
pr ocessor del i ver ed appr oxi matel y 13 ti mes the power of a VAX-11/ 780
system, per pr ocessor. The VAX 6500 systems i mpl emented a new cache
techni que cal l ed wr i te-back cache, whi ch r educed CPU-to-memor y tr affi c
on the system bus, al l owi ng mul ti pr ocessor systems to oper ate mor e effi ci entl y.
NVAX
The NVAX chi p was i ntr oduced i n November of 1991. The companys four th
VAX mi cr opr ocessor , the NVAX chi p was i mpl emented i n 0.75-mi cr on
CMOS technol ogy and shi pped i n the VAX 6600. The NVAX i ncor por ated the
pi pel i ned per for mance of the VAX 9000 and was the fastest CI SC chi p of i ts
ti medel i ver i ng 30 ti mes the CPU speed of the VAX-11/ 780.
The NVAX chi p i s the cur r ent technol ogy used i n VAX systems shi ppi ng today.
36
Moving at breakneck speed
Chi p devel opment at DI GITAL was r emar kabl y speedy. The ti mefr ame
fr om Mi cr oVAX to CVAX was about two and a quar ter year s. Fr om CVAX
to Ri gel was l ess than two year s. Fr om Ri gel to Mar i ah was about a year.
Mar i ah to NVAX was 15 months.
Growing t he business t hrough silicon
The VAX chi p set l aunched the companys pr oduct devel opment i n a new
di r ecti on. In the fi r st ful l fi scal year , the VAX chi p busi ness gr ew i nto a
bi l l i on-dol l ar busi ness. Ul ti matel y, i t gr ew to a two to thr ee bi l l i on-dol l ar
busi ness.
When Mi cr oVAX was i ntr oduced, l ess than 10 per cent of the companys sys-
tems r evenue came fr om pr oducts based on mi cr opr ocessor chi ps. By 1990,
mi cr opr ocessor chi ps wer e r esponsi bl e for 90 per cent of the systems r ev-
enue. By the ear l y 1990s, the DI GITAL semi conductor gr oup was the
l ar gest and most pr ofi tabl e busi ness i n the company.
Maj or perf ormance i ncreases
Power ed by Mi cr oVAX chi ps, VAX systems i ncr eased i n per for mance
fr om one MI P, to 2.5 MI PS, to 7 MI PS, to 11 MI PS to over 30 MI PS i n
fi ve gener ati ons of desi gn. The VAX system had establ i shed a wor l dwi de
r eputati on as the fastest, hi ghest-per for mance machi ne on the mar ket.
DI GITAL measur ed the per for mance of i ts chi ps agai nst the competi ti on
fr om the ti me Mi cr oVAX was i ntr oduced. The companys goal to pr oduce
the i ndustr ys fastest mi cr opr ocessor swas achi eved wi th CVAX, whi ch
was the fastest chi p of i ts ti me.
37
VAX 9000 chip manufacturing clean room.
Reflecting on the different chip sets,
from MicroVAX I I through CVAX,
Rigel and NVAX the primary
focus of architectural energy was
processor performance, with the
NVAX architecture pushing
creativity to its limits.
JayNichols
Computer Special Systems,
Manager of Engineering
Prism: VMS on RISC t echnol ogy
DI GITAL began wor ki ng on RI SC technol ogy i n 1986 when Jack Smi th,
VP of Oper ati ons, tapped Dave Cutl er on the shoul der and sai d, You wi l l be
RI SC Czar for DI GITAL. Or gani ze a pr ogr am. The pr ogr am, code named
Pr i sm, was to devel op the companys RI SC machi ne. Its oper ati ng system
woul d embody the next gener ati on of desi gn pr i nci pl es and have a
compati bi l i ty l ayer for UNI X and VMS.
The team di scussed such i ssues as: Shoul d i t be 32 or 64 bi ts? Shoul d i t be
tar geted for the commer ci al or techni cal mar ket? The pr oposed i mpl emen-
tati on of Pr i sm was an ECL machi ne. Whi l e known for bei ng par ti cul ar l y
power -hungr y, ECL was the fastest semi conductor technol ogy avai l abl e
dur i ng the 1970s and 80s. The VAX 8600, 8800, and 9000 ser i es wer e bui l t
usi ng ECL. However , wi th the NVAX chi p i n 1991, CMOS technol ogy
sur passed ECLs per for mance at a much l ower power cost.
Ther e wer e al r eady two other ECL pr oj ects under way, the VAX 9000 and
a successor to the VAX 8800. Woul d these machi nes be competi ti ve or
over l appi ng i n the mar ketpl ace? What woul d be thei r compar ati ve
per for mance? What about cost? Obvi ousl y, i t made no sense for DI GITAL
to be devel opi ng thr ee pr oj ects of the same magni tude.
In Apr i l of 1988, a gr oup of wor kstati on engi neer s made a counter pr oposal
to get DI GITAL i nto the techni cal computi ng mar ket vi a exi sti ng RI SC
technol ogy. They star ted bui l di ng a RI SC wor kstati on that woul d r un
ULTRI Xthe companys por t of UNI Xusi ng mi cr opr ocessor s fr om
a star tup company cal l ed MI PS. Pr i sm was cancel ed i n favor of usi ng
MI PS technol ogy.
CHAPTER X Bui l di ng the Br i dge to Al pha
38
February 1991, DIGITAL announced Alpha,
programming for the 21st century.
The speedy MicroPrism chi p
Meanwhi l e, the semi conductor gr oup i n Hudson, Massachusetts, was
wor ki ng on the Mi cr oPr i sm chi pa si ngl e-chi p CMOS i mpl ementati on of
the Pr i sm ar chi tectur e. After the Pr i sm pr ogr am was cancel ed, the Hudson
gr oup was al l owed to compl ete the Mi cr oPr i sm chi p, si nce i t was ver y
near compl eti on. The smal l batch of Mi cr oPr i sm chi ps pr oduced r an
successful l y at 45 MHza speed that was unhear d of at that ti me,
and that far sur passed the per for mance of any RI SC chi p avai l abl e on
the mar ket.
The birt h of Alpha
The Pr i sm pr ogr am was si gni fi cant for DI GITAL because of the l egacy
i t l eft for Al phathe companys futur e 64-bi t technol ogy. A smal l team
for med i n Jul y of 1988 to deter mi ne what RI SC technol ogy coul d do for
VMS. Fi r st the team asked themsel ves, What do we have to do to get VMS
up on RI SC? Then they tur ned the questi on ar ound. If the customer s
have to go thr ough a tr ansi ti on, how do we get the maxi mum per for mance
and mi ni mi ze thei r pai n? Thats when Al pha was bor n.
Al pha was ver y much the son of Pr i sm. The pr i mar y changes made to
pr oduce Al pha wer e for VMS compati bi l i ty. The or i gi nal Pr i sm desi gn had
ser i ous compati bi l i ty pr obl ems wi th the VAX and VMS i n two ar eas
numer i cal data types and pr i vi l eged ar chi tectur e.
The Al pha ar chi tectur e was bui l t on four pr emi ses. Fi r st, i t had to be a ver y
l ong-l i ved ar chi tectur e. Second, i t had to del i ver the hi ghest per for mance
for both techni cal and commer ci al appl i cati ons. Thi r d, i t had to be ver y
scal abl e i n ter ms of both i mpl ementati on si ze and r ange of systems sup-
por ted. And four th, i t had to suppor t customer s appl i cati ons and oper ati ng
systems, VMS and UNI X. Wi ndows NT had not yet enter ed the scene.
Weve done a lot of work to make sure that moving from VAX to Alpha is
very easy. If a customer doesnt want to move their entire environment to
Alpha at one time, they dont have to. We support mixed architecture clusters,
which allows VAX and Alpha to run together in a cluster. They can stay on
VAX as long as theyd like to. Well continue to do releases of OpenVMS
Alpha and OpenVMS VAX at the same time.
Rich Marcello
Vice President, OpenVMS Systems Software Group
39
Port ing VMS t o Alpha
While the Alpha architecture was
being designed, the principal piece
of work needing attention was VMS.
Nancy Kronenberg led the VMS chal-
lenge, which seemed rather formida-
ble. VMS contained more than 10
million lines of codemuch of it writ-
ten in VAX assembly code. It was
coded to all the features of the VAX
instruction
set, and it was unclear how to
separate VMS from VAX.
Through careful analysis, Nancys
team discovered that even though
VMS looked monolithic, it was a well-
structured operating system with a
machine-dependent and a machine-
independent layer. The machine-
dependent layer could be ported and
the machine-independent layer
would follow. The team invented solu-
tions such as the macro compiler,
which treated
VAX macro code as a higher level lan-
guage and compiled it to Alpha.
In 1991, the final taskporting VMS
to Alphafell to Jean Proulx and her
team who accomplished the porting
challenge brilliantly. VMS was Alpha-
ready!
Asking t he right quest ions
The team made deci si ons about the pr oduct by aski ng questi ons. If the
obj ecti ve i s to cr eate a 20-year tar get, wi l l a 32-bi t machi ne be vi abl e 20
year s fr om now? The answer , No. So i t became a 64-bi t machi ne. That
par t was easy. What woul d i t take to dr i ve per for mance over 20 year s vi a
cl ock r ate i mpr ovements, mul ti pl e i nstr ucti on i ssues, i nter nal or gani zati on,
and mul ti -pr ocessi ng? The ar chi tectur e r efl ects exactl y what i t takes to
do that.
They l ooked at the i ssue of scal abi l i ty fr om smal l to l ar ge, and ther efor e
had a model of what coul d be the mi ni mum i mpl ementati on. Resear ch
done on Pr i sm hel ped the team sol ve oper ati ng system, data fl exi bi l i ty,
and code handl i ng i ssues. Another cr i ti cal devel opment i ssue was the
noti on of VAX-to-Al pha bi nar y tr ansl ati on to ensur e a smooth mi gr ati on
for DI GITAL customer s who woul d eventual l y move to 64-bi t computi ng.
Det ermi ni ng Al pha s bui l di ng bl ocks
The basi c bui l di ng bl ocks of Al pha wer e: an ar chi -
tectur al commi tment to move to 64 bi ts wi th the
hi ghest l evel s of per for mance that woul d pr eser ve
DI GITAL customer s i nvestments, a matchi ng
commi tment on VMS to pr eser ve customer s oper -
ati ng envi r onments, and si l i con that woul d stand
the i ndustr y on i ts ear. The desi gn team studi ed
hi gh-speed i mpl ementati on techni ques di scover ed
thr ough the Mi cr oPr i sm pr oj ect. The team con-
cl uded that a chi p coul d be bui l t that woul d r un
two to thr ee ti mes faster than anythi ng el se i n the
i ndustr yone that woul d r un at 200 MHz when
competi tor s wer e tal ki ng about 50 MHz.
Bringing t he company on board
The Al pha pr ogr am r an as a l oose confeder ati on of
peopl e who shar ed the vi si on of putti ng DI GITAL
back on top wi th l eader shi p systems. Ther e was an Al pha pr oj ect i n VMS,
and an Al pha pr oj ect i n DI GITAL semi conductor gr oup. These team
member s went out and pr osel yti zed to the r est of the company and
convi nced i t gr oup by gr oup to par ti ci pate, unti l eventual l y the Al pha
pr ogr am consumed r oughl y a thi r d of the companys engi neer i ng
r esour ces.
40
Ken Olsen visits manufacturing facility during
the power-up of the first Alpha system.
Get t i ng busi ness part ners on board
In or der for the par tner s at DI GITAL to take advantage of thi s r ecor d-
br eaki ng technol ogy, Vi ce Pr esi dent Bi l l Demmer set up the Al pha AXP
Par tner s Offi ce si x months befor e the announcement so that the companys
busi ness par tner s woul d be si gned up and on boar d at announcement ti me.
Ear l y Al pha par tner s i ncl uded Ander sen Consul ti ng, Cr ay Resear ch,
Encor e, Kubota Paci fi c Computer , Raytheon, and Ol i vetti .
By September 1992, DI GITAL had shi pped mor e than 1,000 Al pha systems
to softwar e devel oper s.
Bringing on t he cust omers
To meet customer needs, DI GITAL devel oped pr ogr ams and ser vi ces to
suppor t thi s new technol ogy. For two year s pr i or to the 64-bi t announce-
ment, a gr oup of customer s met r egul ar l y to r evi ew pl ans for the Al pha
AXP pr ogr am. The gr oup, the ALPHA AXP Customer End User Advi sor y,
i ncl uded r epr esentati ves fr om communi cati ons, manufactur i ng, tech-
nol ogy, gover nment, the uni ver si ty communi ty, and other potenti al
mar kets for the Al pha technol ogy.
41
With peak execution rates of up to 2 BIPS,
these top-performing Alpha 21164 chips push
the performance envelope for visual comput-
ing applications such as video conferencing,
3-D modeling, video editing, multimedia
authoring, image rendering, and animation.
Today is the beginning of a new revolution in computing. With nearly limit-
less 64-bit computing power and the applications of three major operating
systems, the path ahead leads wherever the imagination can take it. ALPHA
AXP computing will enable customers to invest in profitable new ways to
serve people.
Robert B. Palmer
Chairman, President and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation
Q2 FY93
On Febr uar y 25, 1992, DI GITAL i ntr oduced another si gni fi cant technol ogy
advance: the wor l ds fi r st 64-bi t ar chi tectur e. Thi s r evol uti onar y ar chi tec-
tur e was based on the Al phaChi p 64-bi t RI SC technol ogy and 150 MHz
DECchi p 21064 mi cr opr ocessor.
Announcing t he Alpha AXP f amily of syst ems
In November 1992, DI GITAL announced a compl ete fami l y of ALPHA AXP
systems. It i ncl uded ALPHA AXP wor kstati ons, depar tmental ser ver s, data
center ser ver s, mai nfr ame-cl ass ser ver s, and system softwar e, as wel l as
ser vi ces, l ayer ed pr oducts, per i pher al s, and upgr ade pr ogr ams. Four
hundr ed softwar e par tner s announced avai l abi l i ty dates for near l y 900
Al pha appl i cati ons.
Al pha AXP achi eved r ecor d-br eaki ng status. In Apr i l , ALPHA AXP per -
for med the wor l ds fastest sor t and fastest tr ansacti on pr ocessi ng to date.
The company announced the i ndustr ys hi ghest-per for mance wor kstati ons
i n the l ess than $5,000, $10,000, and $15,000 pr i ce categor i es.
Chapter XI Al phaChi pThe 64-bi t Br eakthr ough
42
Above to the left; Bill Demmer, VP, discusses AlphaChip in 1992 announcement.
Above; Ken Olsen visits Alpha manufacturing facility.
Dest i nat i on Al pha: Removi ng t he barri ers
To hel p ensur e that customer s have a r i sk-fr ee tr ansi ti on fr om VAX systems
to Al pha systems, DI GITAL l aunched the Desti nati on Al pha pr ogr am i n
1995. Under thi s pr ogr am, DI GITAL opened 34 appl i cati on mi gr ati on
center s ar ound the gl obe to hel p customer s mi gr ate thei r appl i cati ons.
In addi ti on, an engi neer i ng hotl i ne i s avai l abl e to hel p customer s r esol ve
thei r most cr i ti cal mi gr ati on i ssues.
DI GITAL al so devel oped a pr ogr am cal l ed Pr oj ect Navi gator that addr esses
any fi nanci al or techni cal bar r i er s that customer s may face. Thr ough these
pr ogr ams and ser vi ces, DI GITAL has pr ovi ded customer s wi th a smooth
tr ansi ti on to the Al pha pl atfor m.
43
VAXenjoying life af t er Alpha
Many people thought that after
DIGITAL announced its family of
64-bit Alpha computers, there would
be no more VAX systems introduced.
Not so.
In 1995, DIGITAL announced the
Catamount project, which was
responsible for producing the VAX
4000 Model 108 system and
MicroVAX 3100 Model 88 and 98
systems. DIGITAL added new func-
tionality into the product set, includ-
ing an increased memory capacity by
a factor of four. Engineers increased
the memory capacity in response to
customer requests for more memory
to meet prior increases in CPU per-
formance. The Catamount products
were designed to be both rack
mountable and used on the desktop.
The focus was lowering the cus-
tomers cost of ownership and allow-
ing customers to take advantage of
lower cost memory and storage tech-
nology.
Beyond the product enhancements,
the real significance of this new line
of VAX systems was the fact that DIG-
ITAL was continuing to make invest-
ments to support
the companys Installed Base of VAX
customers.
Ken Olsen and Bob Palmer discuss future
technology.
When we were designing the Destination Alpha Program, we realized that
we needed to develop customized solutions so customers could move from
VAX to Alpha at their own pace.
Janet Darden
Destination Alpha Program Manager
VMS becomes OpenVMS
The 64-bi t Al pha system became the most power ful system i n the i ndustr y.
Maj or devel opments i ncl uded str ategi c Al pha softwar e combi ned wi th the
avai l abi l i ty of Mi cr osofts Wi ndows NT on the Al pha pl atfor m. Dur i ng thi s
ti me fr ame, DI GITAL offi ci al l y changed the name of VMS to OpenVMS to
r efl ect the ease of por tabi l i ty and openness of thi s oper ati ng system. Wi th
OpenVMS, VMS now suppor ted the wi del y accepted POSI X standar ds of
the I EEE. The VAX oper ati ng system was al so br anded by X/ Open, the non-
pr ofi t consor ti um of many of the wor l ds maj or i nfor mati on system suppl i er s.
OpenVMS suppor ts key standar ds such as OSF/ Moti f, POSI X, XPG4, and
the OSF Di str i buted Computi ng Envi r onment (DCE). Extensi ve suppor t
for standar ds i n the oper ati ng system hel ps when bui l di ng an open systems
envi r onment usi ng OpenVMS as the base. Suppor ted open systems stan-
dar ds i ncl ude networ ki ng, data, document, systems, softwar e devel opment,
and user i nter face. OpenVMS suppor ts al l maj or open systems standar ds,
i ncl udi ng those for networ ki ng, data, document, systems, softwar e
devel opment, and user i nter face.
44
VMS becomes OpenVMS.
Wi th thi s name change came the i ntr oducti on of 13 Al pha-r eady OpenVMS
VAX systems and ser ver s. Al pha-r eady was the ter m coi ned to i ndi cate that
these VAX machi nes wer e easi l y upgr aded to i ncor por ate the new 64-bi t
technol ogy.
In Febr uar y 1993, the company shi pped 26 OpenVMS ALPHA AXP
pr oducts ahead of schedul e to pr ovi de a softwar e sui te for devel oper s,
system i ntegr ator s, and end user s. In May, mor e than 2,000 appl i cati ons
wer e avai l abl e for OpenVMSALPHA AXP.
45
ALPHA AXP family members.
Thr oughout the i ndustr y, i ncr easi ng demands wer e pl aced on computer s
as customer s appl i cati ons gr ew. One way to pr ovi de mor e computi ng
power was to bui l d bi gger , faster systems up to the cur r ent techni cal l i mi ts.
DI GITAL came up wi th an al ter nate sol uti on that pr ovi ded mor e power
wi thout sacr i fi ci ng the benefi ts of di str i buted computi ng customer s wanted.
That i deal was cl uster i ng.
Cl uster computi ng, i nvented by DI GITAL, has become a wi del y accepted
al ter nati ve method of pr ovi di ng hi gher system avai l abi l i ty and scal abi l i ty
usi ng mai nstr eam computi ng pr oducts than can be pr ovi ded by a si ngl e
computer system. In fact, i n the eyes of our customer s, DI GITALs OpenVMS
Cl uster s became the standar d by whi ch al l other cl uster s ar e measur ed.
Cl uster computi ng pr ovi des a di mensi on of scal abi l i ty as an al ter nati ve to
extendi ng or upgr adi ng a si ngl e system, and al l ows ol der i nstal l ed systems
to be coupl ed i nto the cl uster to pr ovi de an economi cal way to i ncr ease
computi ng power and del i ver hi gher avai l abi l i ty of data and appl i cati ons.
Int roduci ng VAXclust ers
In May 1983, DI GITAL announced VAXcl uster s. VAXcl uster s ti ed
VAX pr ocessor s together i n a l oose pr ocessor coupl i ng that al l owed
VAX computer s to oper ate as a si ngl e systemextendi ng VAX
char acter i sti cs to hi gh-capaci ty and hi gh-avai l abi l i ty appl i cati ons.
OpenVMS Clust ers
Over the year s, VAXcl uster s evol ved to VMScl uster s, and today ar e
OpenVMS Cl uster s for VAX and Al pha Systems. OpenVMS Cl uster s
ar e unpar al l el ed i n the i ndustr y today. Most of the wor l ds stock
exchanges and el ectr oni c funds tr ansfer acti vi ti es r un on OpenVMS
Cl uster s.
An OpenVMS Cl uster i s a hi ghl y i ntegr ated or gani zati on of VAX and
Al pha systems, appl i cati on and systems softwar e, and stor age
devi ces. Systems si zed fr om the desktop to the datacenter can be
connected i nto an OpenVMS Cl uster. OpenVMS Cl uster softwar e
enabl es the system to wor k an easy-to-manage vi r tual system that
shar es pr i nti ng r esour ces, stor age devi ces, and pr i nt and batch
queues.
OpenVMS Cl uster s offer the best benefi ts of both centr al i zed and di s-
tr i buted systems wi th the added benefi t of power that can sur pass
that of a mai nfr ameat a fr acti on of the cost. And they can be added
to or di vi ded as customer r equi r ements di ctate.
CHAPTER XI I Inaugur ati ng the Ki ng of Cl uster s
46
(Open)VMS remains King of the Clusters. DIGITALs technology
is still the high bar against which other clustering schemes
are measured.
Datamation, August 15, 1995
VAXclusters was the first clustering
capability in the industry! VAXclusters
tied VAX processors together, which allowed
VAX computers to operate as a single system,
extending the characteristics of VAX to
high-availability applications.
47
Local Area VAXclust ers
In 1986, DI GITAL i ntr oduced Local Ar ea VAXcl uster s, whi ch extended
di str i buted computi ng capabi l i ty to the wor kgr oup and used a standar d
Ether net networ k as the cl uster i nter connect.
Wi th Local Ar ea VAXcl uster s, VMS extended i ts cl uster technol ogy to the
NI. The CI i nter face was a l ar ge, expensi ve contr ol l er avai l abl e onl y on
l ar ge, expensi ve VAX systems. That fact, pl us the l i mi t at that ti me of 16
systems on a CI, l i mi ted CI cl uster s to the l ar ge computer r oom VAX
systems. Al so, al l cl uster -accessi bl e stor age had to be connected di r ectl y
to the CI. However , the advent of the Mi cr oVAX and VAX wor kstati ons
(concur r ent wi th cl uster s i n 1984) cr eated the demand to connect l ar ger
number s of smal l er VMS systems i nto the cl uster.
To answer thi s demand, DI GITAL modi fi ed VMS to al l ow the cl uster
communi cati on pr otocol s to oper ate over the NI, whi ch was the onl y
i nter connect avai l abl e on smal l VAX systems. In addi ti on, softwar e was
i ntr oduced to al l ow al l stor age devi ces on the cl uster to be ser ved to al l
cl uster member s. Thi s al l owed the NI cl uster member s access to the
HSC-based stor age even though they had no di r ect connecti on.
Unparalleled benefit s of
OpenVMS Clust ers
High availabilityGuaranteed access
to data and applications due to mul-
tiple connected systems.
Easy growthA cluster can contain
anywhere from 2 to 96 systems,
depending on the changing needs of
the business.
Shared accessAll users can
easily access applications, storage
devices, and printers within a
cluster.
Easy to manageAn entire cluster
can be managed as a single system,
remotely or on-site.
Investment protectionExisting
systems can be integrated into the
same cluster along with new VAX and
Alpha technology.
Multiple interconnectsClusters can
be configured using many different
interconnects, including CI, DSSI,
SCSI, NI, and FDDI.
Automatic cachingEnhances perfor-
mance and reduces I/ O activity.
DECamdsOptional availability
management tool allows monitoring
and managing resources availability
in real-time.
Lock manager servicesAllows
reliable access to any resource or
file, without the danger of losing
or corrupting the file and its data.
Local area VAXCluster systems extended VAXCluster
technology to Ethernet. Bringing the software advantages
of the VAXCluster environment to the MicroVAX II and
VAXstation II systems.
Support ing clust ers via more int erconnect s
In the year s si nce, DI GITAL added mor e i nter connects to suppor t cl uster
connecti ons:
F D D I an i ndustr y-standar d, opti cal fi ber i nter connect appr oxi matel y
ten ti mes faster than an Ether net. The FDDI al so pr ovi ded access to
br i dges to a number of common car r i er communi cati ons medi a, al l owi ng
cl uster connecti ons over gr eat di stances.
D S S I a l ow-cost CI that al l ows connecti on of up to thr ee VMS systems
and a l i mi ted number of di r ectl y attached di sks.
M e m o ry C h a n n e l a ver y fast di r ect memor y access path between
VMS systems l ocated cl ose together.
48
The high-availability characteristics of OpenVMS and clusters are very
important to us...the scalability and clustering capability of OpenVMS allow
us to provide our clients with technology as they need it.
Scott Fancher
Vice President and Product Line Executive, Cerner Corporation
Bring on more mules
An analogy can be drawn from farm-
ing. To do more plowing, the farmer
can work his mule longer and harder,
or trade in his old mule for a bigger
and stronger one. Another option is
to buy a second mule and team
them together.
Clustering, or joining computers
together to share a task, was like
hooking up a second mule. And a
third. And a fourth. Customers could
keep their existing investments and
grow from there.
Fault Tol erant and Di sast er Tolerant Syst ems
Just as cl uster i ng was an outgr owth of networ ki ng, faul t tol er ant and
di saster tol er ant systems wer e an outgr owth of cl uster i ng.
Cl uster s offer hi gh avai l abi l i ty; they ar e not faul t tol er ant. Cl uster i ng
enabl ed the devel opment of faul t tol er ant and di saster tol er ant systems by
pr ovi di ng avai l abi l i ty that guar anteed 24x365 days of ser vi ce. Faul t tol er ant
systems pr ovi de what i s consi der ed fi ve ni nes of avai l abi l i ty, meani ng that
the system woul d be avai l abl e 99.999 per cent of the ti me. Faul t tol er ant
systems al l ow appl i cati ons to conti nue computi ng i n the event of equi p-
ment fai l ur e. The system does not have to wai t to r estar t or boot after
encounter i ng a fai l ur e. Rather , the fai l ed pi ece of equi pment dr ops off
whi l e the r edundant pai r conti nues to r un fr om the ti me of the faul t. In
cer tai n si tuati ons thi s ki nd of avai l abi l i ty i s neededsuch as 9-1-1 emer -
gency ser vi ces, fi nanci al / stock mar ket tr ansacti ons, ai r tr affi c contr ol , and
nucl ear r eactor moni tor i ng. Faul t tol er ant appl i cati ons ar e needed wher e
the consequences ar e di sastr ous i f the computer i s out for a few mi nutes or
mor e. Faul t tol er ant fai l over occur s i n a mi nute or l ess, wi th no l oss of data.
Mul ti -si te cl uster ed systems ar e used i n di saster tol er ant appl i cati ons.
Di saster tol er ant systems ar e set up to pr epar e for man-made or envi r on-
mental di saster s i ncl udi ng ter r or i sm, fi r es, ear thquakes, fl oods, etc. Al l
these si tuati ons have the potenti al to take out a computer r oom. If ther e i s
a back-up system that can send out data to another l ocati on, the systems
wi l l r emai n functi oni ng to pr event l osses of data and busi ness that an
i nter r upti on woul d cause. Two faul t tol er ant systems cl uster ed together i n
two di ffer ent l ocati ons pr ovi de si te di ver si ty and automati c fai l over to a si te
di stanced fr om the di saster. If one si te goes down, the other takes over and
conti nues oper ati ngwi thout mi ssi ng a beat.
OpenVMS Clust ers cont inue t o reign as t he King of Clust ers
Today, mor e than 65,000 OpenVMS Cl uster
systems ar e found at the hear t of conti nuous
computi ng sol uti ons for such cr i ti cal appl i ca-
ti ons as stock exchanges, el ectr oni c funds
tr ansfer s, heal thcar e, tel ecommuni cati ons, and
pr ocess manufactur i ng. No other sol uti on can
match OpenVMS Cl uster systems when i t comes
to our over 14 year s of pr ovi di ng a conti nuous
computi ng envi r onment. Onl y OpenVMS Cl uster
systems can span up to 500 mi l es to enabl e
conti nuous oper ati on thr ough even l ar ge scal e
natur al or man-made di saster s ensur i ng opti mal
data and tr ansacti on i ntegr i ty and fast r ecover y.
OpenVMS Cl uster system suppor t r ol l i ng
upgr ades , enabl i ng system pr ocessor s, boar ds,
per i pher al s, oper ati ng softwar e, databases, and
pr ogr am modul es to be r epl aced, upgr ades, or
updated wi thout i nter r upti ng the oper ati on.
49
VAXft 3000 Announcement
The Fault Tolerant Group
The OpenVMS Ambassadors
Program, formerly known as
OpenVMS Partners, is an internation-
al program that provides a
liaison between customers and
the companys OpenVMS Systems
Software Group and expert field
organizations in sales support,
systems integration, Technical
Consulting Center (TCC), and bench-
marking. The OpenVMS
Ambassadors provide valuable
customer feedback, and because of
their technical expertise can relay
information in engineering terms and
can make recommendations about
what types of changes are needed
from the customers perspective. The
Ambassadors must meet three
essential criteria: technical compe-
tence, commitment, and a high level
of
communication skills.
The OpenVMS operating system environment holds a special place in the computer industry. It was the centerpiece
of the minicomputer revolution, the first operating system to prove that scaling from desktop to data center was
practical, and the first to demonstrate that clustered systems could achieve levels of availability well beyond
mainframes or fault tolerant systems. It was, and continues to be, a huge market success.
Wes Melling
VP of Windows NT and OpenVMS Systems Group
OpenVMS i s a gener al pur pose, mul ti -user oper ati ng system that r uns i n
both pr oducti on and devel opment envi r onments. OpenVMS Al pha suppor ts
the DI GITAL Al pha ser i es of computer s, whi l e OpenVMS VAX suppor ts the
VAX ser i es of computer s. The softwar e suppor ts i ndustr y standar ds for
faci l i tati ng appl i cati on por tabi l i ty and i nter oper abi l i ty. It al so suppor ts
symmetr i cal mul ti pr ocessi ng (SMP) suppor t for mul ti pr ocessi ng Al pha
and VAX systems.
An int egral part of t hree-t ier comput ing
Today, the cor e of the OpenVMS str ategy i s to l ever age the i nher ent affi ni ty
between Wi ndows NT and OpenVMS by combi ni ng the unequal ed str engths
of OpenVMS wi th the emer gi ng power and appl i cati on l i br ar y of Wi ndows
NT i n a seaml ess computi ng envi r onment.
OpenVMS i s the envi r onment of choi ce i n the most demandi ng of conti nu-
ous computi ng si tuati ons. The hi gh l evel s of avai l abi l i ty, i ntegr i ty, secur i ty,
and scal abi l i ty of OpenVMS make i t a natur al unl i mi ted hi gh-end for
Wi ndows NT i n a thr ee-ti er cl i ent/ ser ver envi r onment. OpenVMS i s the
number one oper ati ng system i n heal thcar e today. It al so enj oys a maj or
pr esence i n the fi nanci al , funds tr ansfer , and stock exchange i ndustr i es,
as wel l as manufactur i ng, educati on, and gover nment.
CHAPTER XI I I OpenVMS Today
50
OpenVMS Ambassador Team (Business Partners)
Unparal l el ed avai l abi l i t y
OpenVMS pr ovi des i mmuni ty to
pl anned and unpl anned downti me
wi th pr oven 24x365 avai l abi l i ty,
i ncl udi ng di saster -tol er ant mul ti -si te
cl uster s spanni ng 500 mi l es.
OpenVMS systems scal e to meet the
per for mance, avai l abi l i ty, and data
r equi r ements of the l ar gest enter -
pr i se appl i cati ons thr ough 64-bi t,
Ver y Lar ge Memor y (VLM), and
Ver y Lar ge Data Base (VLDB) sup-
por t, and cl uster s of up to 96 nodes.
OpenVMS pr ovi des enhanced per -
for mance, cl uster i ng fl exi bi l i ty, easy
Inter net connecti on, and 64-bi t VLM
for busi ness-cr i ti cal appl i cati ons.
New featur es have been i ncor por at-
ed to fur ther per for mance i n
OpenVMS Cl uster i ng and to
i mpr ove system management.
Memor y Channel cl uster s, extended
VLM capabi l i ty, cl uster fai l over , and
the OpenVMS Inter net Pr oduct Sui te
ar e al so pr ovi ded by OpenVMS.
Enhanced support f or clust eri ng
OpenVMS Cl uster technol ogy
enabl es customer s to confi gur e
di saster -tol er ant mul ti -si te cl uster s
l ocated up to 500 mi l es
(800 ki l ometer s) apar t.
OpenVMS pr ovi des featur es speci fi -
cal l y desi gned to i mpr ove per for -
mance and expand OpenVMS
Cl uster confi gur ati on fl exi bi l i ty.
OpenVMS suppor ts mi xed ar chi tec-
tur e cl uster s and al l ows customer s
to connect up to 96 Al pha and VAX
systems and stor age contr ol l er s to
shar e common data and r esour ces
acr oss systems, as wel l as ar chi tec-
tur es. OpenVMS Cl uster systems
can uti l i ze FDDI, CI, DSSI,
Ether net, and Mi xed-i nter connect
tr anspor ts.
Two power ful featur es of OpenVMS
Cl uster s ar e Memor y Channel
and the Busi ness Recover y Ser ver.
Memor y Channel compr i ses a
hi gh-per for mance i nter connect
technol ogy for PCI-based Al pha
systems that i mpr oves OpenVMS
Cl uster per for mance and r educes
costs. Busi ness Recover y Ser ver
Cl uster suppor t al l ows busi nesses
to wi thstand di saster sfl oods,
fi r es, ear thquakesat any si te,
wi thout l oss of access to data
or appl i cati ons.
OpenVMS Cl uster systems can be
managed centr al l y, as a si ngl e sys-
tem, pr ovi di ng a si ngl e domai n for
data, user s, queues, and secur i ty.
Support ing 64-bit environment s
In November 1995, at DECUS,
DI GITAL announced OpenVMS
Ver si on 7.0suppor ti ng 64-bi t
vi r tual addr essi ng. 64-bi ts of
addr ess space i s 18 exabytes. Thats
four bi l l i on ti mes the 32-bi t addr ess
space of four bi l l i on bytes. Usi ng
64-bi t addr essi ng al l ows devel oper s
to map l ar ge amounts of data i nto
memor y to pr ovi de hi gh l evel s of
per for mance and to suppor t ver y
l ar ge memor y systems.
The cur r ent Al pha memor y man-
agement ar chi tectur e al l ows actual
addr ess space usage of ei ght ter -
abytes. On the VAX, onl y hal f the
addr ess space i s avai l abl e for appl i -
cati ons (2GB), so the cur r entl y
avai l abl e Al pha addr ess space i s
4,000 ti mes that on the VAX.
As ever l ar ger memor y becomes
avai l abl e, the Al pha memor y man-
agement ar chi tectur e can be extend-
ed to suppor t mor e of the theor eti cal
maxi mum of 18 exabytes. Thi s was
the l ar gest i ncr emental r el ease i n
the OpenVMS oper ati ng system
si nce the i ntr oducti on of
VMScl uster s.
51
It is important to emphasize the
significance of the Installed Base to
DIGITAL. With over 700,000 systems
installed worldwide, it is more criti-
cal than ever before for us to contin-
ue to nurture the base.
We brought a bright future to our
OpenVMS Installed Base customers
with the Affinity strategy. OpenVMS
continues to be one of three strategic
platforms from DIGITAL.
WallyCole
VP, Installed Base Marketing
Marketing for OpenVMS is really
fun activity. We have the most loyal,
most enthusiastic customer groups
out there. They appreciate the tech-
nology. They appreciate the ease of
use. They appreciate the value of an
operating system that has become
tried and true over a number of
years and has evolved to the state
where many of the worlds largest
banks, stock exchanges, healthcare
organizations, and production man-
ufacturing environments are trust-
ing their business to the true 24x365
capabilities of OpenVMS.
MaryEllen Fortier
Director, OpenVMS Marketing
Support i ng t he f ami l ygl obal services
DI GITAL r eal i zed that a key factor i n the success of VAX and VMS was
customer ser vi ces. Al most fr om i ts foundi ng, the company has suppor ted
customer s wor l dwi de fr om str ategi cal l y l ocated fi el d ser vi ce faci l i ti es.
Educati onal ser vi ces pr ovi de softwar e and har dwar e tr ai ni ngpr ovi di ng
DI GITAL customer s wi th the necessar y ski l l s to i mpl ement and wor k wi th
the companys system effecti vel y.
DI GITAL devel oped i ts Ser vi ces gr oup to ensur e that the fi r st r el ease of
VMS coul d be suppor ted by fi el d suppor t ser vi ces. Thi s gr oup for mul ated
str ategi es for suppor t of VMS, and l ear ned the softwar e i n depth to be abl e
to suppor t i t and tr ai n peopl e i n the uni que featur es of the new softwar e. A
back-up suppor t gr oup cal l ed VAXwor ks was al so for med to addr ess cus-
tomer needs. The VAXwor ks gr oup r ecei ved phone cal l s and tel exes fr om
peopl e al l over the wor l d.
DI GITAL set out to have the best suppor t and fi el d ser vi ce oper ati ons as
wel l as the best educati on and tr ai ni ng or gani zati on. These ser vi ces have
al ways been a vi tal par t of the companys success and have contr i buted
gr eatl y to the busi ness.
CHAPTER XIV Ser vi ng Customer s Wor l dwi de
52
A big part of the success at DIGITAL was the support and the service. We
gave enormous service to the customer. And without that, even VAX and
VMS wouldnt have been so successful.
Ken Olsen, 1997
Bringing in t he voice of
t he cust omer
From its inception, DIGITAL has
believed that two-way customer com-
munication was necessary to ensure
that the company was building prod-
ucts to solve real-world needs. That
strategy exists today, as DIGITAL
takes a comprehensive approach to
working with customers at all levels
of their organizations.
DIGITAL listens to customers through
a variety of forums,
including:
Customer visitsDIGITAL makes more
than 500 visits to OpenVMS
customers annually.
Technical Direction Forums
Twice a year, DIGITAL presents
new strategies and technologies
to 12 top customers at the Director of
MIS level. This feedback has a direct
impact on future directions.
OpenVMS Executive Counsel
Every six months, DIGITAL meets with
35-40 CIOs in various customer orga-
nizations to look at
overall strategies of business
and direction.
DECUSFounded in 1961, the Digital
Equipment Computer Users Society
(DECUS) is an opportunity for people
who work with OpenVMS on a day-to-
day basis to receive training on all
technologies and
provide valuable feedback.
Field service engineer repairing customer
CPU board.
53
We find that customers are using
information technology to get
greater access to their data. They
want to spend more time on the
analysis of this information and its
distribution using the Internet to
create competitive advantage. They
dont want to spend a lot of time
becoming information technology
experts. More and more theyre rely-
ing on key service partners to take
responsibility for the management of
this information infrastructure.
John Rando
VP and General Manager,
Multivendor Customer Services Organization
Service st rat egy t oday
The r ange of DI GITAL Ser vi ce spans the spectr um fr om systems i ntegr a-
ti on to har dwar e and softwar e mai ntenance. The companys ser vi ce effor t
focuses on thr ee ar eas. The fi r st ar ea i s to suppor t the companys str ategi c
gr owth ar eas: hi gh-per for mance 64-bi t computi ng, NT acr oss the enter -
pr i se, and Inter net connecti vi ty. The second ar ea i s mul ti vendor ser vi ce.
DI GITAL i s the onl y maj or vendor that has decl ar ed a vendor neutr al
str ategy. The thi r d ar ea i s val ue-added ser vi ces and i nnovati on
i n the mar ketpl ace.
DI GITAL has an i nvestment i n gl obal r esour ces and i nfr astr uctur e
thats second to none i n the i ndustr y. The wor l dwi de DI GITAL Ser vi ces
Or gani zati onbetween i ts Mul ti vendor Customer Ser vi ces and Systems
Integr ati on Or gani zati oni ncl udes mor e than 25,000 Ser vi ce Pr ofessi onal s
wor l dwi de and over 450 l ocati ons ar ound the wor l d. At the companys
Sol uti on Center s, System Integr ati on Speci al i sts and Networ k Consul tants
hel p customer s successful l y sol ve thei r most chal l engi ng i nfor mati on
technol ogy pr obl ems.
St rat egic part nershi ps
To ensur e conti nued gr owth and to meet the changi ng busi ness needs of i ts
customer s, DI GITAL has establ i shed str ategi c par tner shi ps wi th i ndustr y-
l eadi ng compani es such as Mi cr osoft Cor por ati on, Or acl e Cor por ati on,
and other s.
54
The customers were members of the family, and there was a strong dialogue
at all levels between engineers and customers. We spent a lot of time hanging
around listening to customers, and DECUS was very active and effective as
a lobbying committee for new product requirements. We built what the
customers told us they needed.
LarryPortner
VP of Software Engineering
When we were about up to Version 3 of VMS, I was at DECUS and a
customer came up to me and she said You wont believe this, but were
still running Baselevel 5 and we love it. We think its the best thing ever.
and were never going to change it because it does just what we need.
So I said, Well, if it does just what you need, I think youre right, dont
ever change it.
KathyMorse
VMS Engineer
VAX: Built t o last
780 drops off a forklift and lives
In 1978, a VAX-11/ 780 was shipped to the National Computer Conference in
Anaheim. At the loading dock it dropped off of a forkliftwhich was hard on some-
thing this big. A replacement machine from a nearby local office was brought to the
show, and the carcass of the dropped system was shipped back to New England.
The engineers took it apart, straightened the frame, and replaced the backplane.
Other than that, it worked perfectly, and was put in service for years, many years. It
was called the Phoenix.
Another VAX-11/ 780 slams into the side of a building and keeps on ticking
Another VAX-11/ 780 was shipped to a customer in Washington, D.C. It was too big
for the elevator, so the customer decided to lift it on a crane and swing it
in through a window. Instead of going into the open window, the system slammed
into the side of a building. The machine looked very damaged.
At that time, VAX-11/ 780 systems were on a six-month backlog and the
customers didnt want to wait for a new one. So the feild service engineers put new
skins on it and replaced a slightly bent backplane, offering a replacement if neces-
sary. That machine always worked perfectly. And the customer was delighted
because he got a six-month lead.
Get t ing t he bugs out . Or, using
cockroaches as semiconduct ors
A VAX-11/ 780 installed at the Carling
Brewery was crashing
several times a day with no pattern
at all. Field services reps had
replaced everything and they
couldnt figure it out. Every time
the machine crashed, accidents
would happen, usually spilling large
quantities of beer.
One day, a software specialist was in
the booth with the machine
pouring over the last dump. All
of a sudden there was the familiar
rhythm of another crash. He looked
out the windows and saw people
scurrying for cover. The capping
machine had run amuck and was
spitting out bottle cap blanks, which
in their raw state are like little two-
inch diameter, razor-sharp, aluminum
frisbees. The software specialist
couldnt take it anymore. He walked
over to the VAX-11/ 780 and kicked
the front panel as hard as he could.
A bunch of cockroaches came scurry-
ing out.
Naturally, cockroaches are attracted
to beer dregs. And it was warm and
dry inside the machine, so they
moved in. He figured that cockroach-
es are at least somewhat conductive.
As the insects ran up and down the
backplane, every once and a while
one of them would
get two legs acrossa pair of
contacts. And the machine would
crash.
The software specialist went out to
the local store and bought Roach
Motels which installed in the bottom
of the machine. The problems ended.
After that, changing the Roach
Motels became a part of
the monthly product maintenance.
55
The VAX-11/ 780 has always held
a lot of sentimental value for me.
Like your first love, you never for-
get your first computer. An VAX-
11/ 780 was the first computer I
programmed on in the early 80s.
My very first program, a test of a
FORTRAN subroutine, I jokingly
called FAST.EXE so that I could
RUN FAST under VMS.
Noteworthy because it was the
first in the very popular VAX line
of
computers from DIGITAL, the
VAX-11/ 780 is also one of the few
computers that can actually be
considered a classic. Not only did
it play a pivotal role in the mini-
computer revolution, but it also
evolved into a standard.
So when a VAX-11/ 780 donated to
the HACKS computer club was on the
loading dock headed for the dump
after its CPU and memory boards
were stripped for parts to get two
other 780s working, I persuaded fel-
low HACKS members to let me have it
and find another use for it. My ideas
were either a bookcase for the Grey
Wall of VMS books, or a wetbar.
Since I didnt have my own copy of
the VMS
documentation at that time, the
wetbar idea was the obvious choice!
Vance Haemmerle
It was extremely exciting in the early days of marketing VAX and VMS
because the company was growing so fast. I remember the first DECUS that
I attended. Each time I went to DECUS, the audience doubled. The first time,
there were about 300 people in the audience, the next time there were 600,
the next time there were 1,200, and the next time there were over 2,000. That
was the momentum that we had in the market. In many cases we would
learn from our customers about different applications using 32-bit.
Marion Dancy
VP of Marketing, UNIX and OpenVMS,
Systems Business Unit
DECUSDigit al Equipment
Comput er Users Societ y
DECUS, the Digital Equipment
Computer Users Society, is an associ-
ation of Information Technology pro-
fessionals interested in the products,
services, and technologies of Digital
Equipment Corporation and related
vendors. The Associations purpose is
to promote the unimpeded exchange
of information, with the goal of help-
ing its members and their organiza-
tions to be more successful. The
Chapter provides members with the
means to enhance their professional
development,
forums for technical training, mecha-
nisms for obtaining up-to-date
information, advocacy programs, and
opportunities for informal discussion
and interaction with professional col-
leagues of like interest.
Top; Mastermind of the VAXbar, Vance
Haemmerle. Bottom; Old VAX-11/780 systems
never die, they just find new ways to serve
humanity.
Leveraging t he nat ural af f init y
of OpenVMS and Windows NT
On May 8, 1995, at DECUS i n
Washi ngton, D.C., Di gi tal Equi pment
Cor por ati on and Mi cr osoft
Cor por ati on announced the Affi ni ty
for OpenVMS Pr ogr am to hel p
customer s i mpl ement the compl e-
mentar y str engths of OpenVMS
and Wi ndows NT i n a thr ee-ti er
cl i ent/ ser ver envi r onment.
OpenVMS pr ovi des the ul ti mate
hi gh-end, tool s, and appl i cati ons to
ensur e a seaml ess i ntegr ati on wi th
Wi ndows NT.
Thi s i ntegr ated systems envi r on-
ment br i ngs the bul l etpr oof capabi l i -
ti es of OpenVMS to the wor l d of
Wi ndows NT appl i cati ons. The
pr ogr am i ncl udes new softwar e,
tool s, mi ddl ewar e, and ser vi ces
fr om DI GITAL and i ts par tner s that
bui l d on the natur al affi ni ty between
OpenVMS and Wi ndows NT
maki ng i t i ncr easi ngl y easi er to
devel op, depl oy, and manage
appl i cati ons acr oss both pl atfor ms.
Si nce May of 1995, DI GITAL has consi stentl y announced new pr oducts,
capabi l i ti es, featur es, and ser vi ces that suppor t the OpenVMS Affi ni ty
envi r onment.
Key exampl es i ncl ude OpenVMS V7.0 for 64-bi t computi ng, new pr oducts
for system management, Wor l d Wi de Web hosti ng, enter pr i se messagi ng,
and appl i cati on devel opment. In addi ti on, softwar e vendor s have r esponded
to user demand wi th new appl i cati ons and tool s. Each year , mor e DI GITAL
busi ness par tner s ar e br i ngi ng appl i cati on devel opment, data war ehousi ng,
and heal thcar e appl i cati ons to the Affi ni ty por tfol i o.
In the two year s si nce i ts i ncepti on, the Affi ni ty for OpenVMS Pr ogr am has
hel ped mor e than 20,000 or gani zati ons ar ound the wor l d i ntegr ate the two
pl atfor ms i n thr ee-ti er cl i ent/ ser ver envi r onments acr oss thei r enter pr i ses.
Customer s i ncl ude wor l dwi de banks and stock exchanges, heal thcar e
pr ovi der s, manufactur i ng faci l i ti es, educati onal i nsti tuti ons, gover nment
or gani zati ons, and mor e.
The magnitude of what we are doing herethe clustering agreement, joint
engineering, joint field teamsis much bigger than what we have done in
the past with other alliances.
Bill Gates
President and CEO, Microsoft Corporation
CHAPTER XV The Affi ni ty Pr ogr am
56
Bill Gates and Robert Palmer.
When our customers had beta
copies of Windows NT, they told us
that it felt like they were revisiting
an old friend. Thats not surprising
because the chief architect of both
operating systems was Dave Cutler.
So there is a natural affinity from a
technical perspective between the two
environments. Wes Melling is often
quoted calling it the Cutler effect.
MaryEllen Fortier
Director, OpenVMS Marketing
57
With the DIGITAL Affinity for OpenVMS Program, OpenVMS and
Windows NT integration brings Corning the richest operating environments.
It provides superior overall functionality and the most complete set of appli-
cations and tools. Weve selected Fortthe industrys premier three-tier
client/server softwarewhich draws on the strengths of both OpenVMS and
Windows NT, making it possible to create and deploy applications with
multi-tier, enterprise-wide functionality.
Mark Joyce
Supervisor of Fiber Systems Engineering
Computer and Information Services, Corning, Inc.
Credit Lyonnai s
In any disaster, the key is to protect the data. If you lose your CPUs, you
can replace them. If you lose your network, you can rebuild it. If you lose
your data, you are down for several months. In the capital markets, that
means you are dead. During the fire at our headquarters, the DIGITAL VMS
Clusters were very effective at protecting the data ... What impressed us was
the ability of all of our major suppliers to mobilize and furnish equipment
and services. DIGITAL managed this very well indeed. They were everywhere
with us.
Patrick Hummel
IT Director Capital Markets Division, Credit Lyonnais
Looking skyward: Galaxy
DI GITAL knows that a companys need for computi ng r esour ces can
fl uctuate si gni fi cantl y for cer tai n appl i cati ons at cer tai n ti mes.
For exampl e, l ets consi der a scenar i o of a system manager for a l ar ge
cl uster i n a tel ecommuni cati ons company. Once ever y thr ee months, a
communi cati on satel l i te mi ght send enor mous quanti ti es of vi tal data to hi s
r ecei vi ng stati on. Tr ansmi ssi on ti me i s onl y two hour s, and i ts cr i ti cal that
al l the data ar e pr ocessed i mmedi atel y. He gets no second chances. But
hi s systems ar e al r eady busy cr unchi ng day-to-day i nfor mati on. Shor t of
buyi ng, or l easi ng, new CPUs, memor y, and di sks, what can he do?
Thats wher e Gal axy wi l l come i n. DI GITAL i s devel opi ng an evol uti on i n
OpenVMS functi onal i ty that wi l l i ncl ude a new model of computi ng that
al l ows mul ti pl e i nstances of OpenVMS to execute cooper ati vel y i n a si ngl e
computer. For compani es l ooki ng to i mpr ove thei r abi l i ty to manage unpr e-
di ctabl e, var i abl e, or gr owi ng IT wor kl oads, the DI GITAL Gal axy softwar e
sol uti on for OpenVMS pr ovi des the most fl exi bl e way to dynami cal l y r econ-
fi gur e and manage system r esour ces. Gal axy i s a power ful softwar e sol u-
ti on that al l ows system manager s to easi l y r eal l ocate i ndi vi dual CPUs or
memor y thr ough a si mpl e dr ag-and-dr op pr ocedur e.
Enhancing OpenVMS
After 20 year s, OpenVMS sti l l has tr emendous gr owth potenti al .
OpenVMS i s a key component of the DI GITAL str ategy to sati sfy
i ts customer s computi ng needs wel l i nto the next centur y.
CHAPTER XVI Vi si on of the Futur e
58
Today, OpenVMS is the most flexi-
ble and adaptable operating system
on the planet. What started out as
the concept of Starlet in 1975 is
moving into Galaxy for the 21st
century. And like the universe, there
is no end in sight.
Jesse Lipcon,
Senior VP, UNIX and OpenVMS
Systems Business Unit
The growing importance of the Internet and corporate
intranets perpetuates the value of OpenVMS. This is an area
where 24x365 is essential. DIGITAL offers a variety of Web-based
servers. OpenVMS is a platform that provides full reliability and
availability of Internet services.
HarryCopperman
Senior VP and General Manager Products Division
Alpha System, the path to the 21st Century.
The five-pronged OpenVMS st rat egy
1. DIGITAL will maintain all current
OpenVMS capabilities and will ease
the migration to a 64-bit environ-
ment.
2. The company will continue to invest
in OpenVMS development to
ensure the long-term future of the
operating system.
3. The disaster tolerant, 24X365
strengths of OpenVMS will continue
to be enhanced.
4. The company will provide seamless
integration with Windows NT.
5. OpenVMS will continue to provide
an unlimited high-end to Windows
NT. Current OpenVMS engineering
projects are upholding the same
high standards of engineering
excellence that have characterized
OpenVMS from its inception.
DIGITAL will continue to focus on 64-
bit computing in such areas as the
Internet, continuous computing,
Windows NT integration, and data
warehousing. To meet the demand for
the integration of enterprise comput-
ing with Windows NT, DIGITAL will
develop enterprise applications, visu-
al computing, and mail and messag-
ing that are NT-integrated. Internet
business growth will support the mar-
ketplace need for the development of
customer intranets, Internet com-
merce, and ISP/ Telco support.
59
If OpenVMS engineering continues the type of innovation were doing now,
well be here for another 20 years, and then well be asking ourselves again:
whats next?
Steve Zalewski
Technical Director of OpenVMS systems software group
OpenVMS plays a critical role in our customers operations. Its a very
vibrant, vital operating system, with exceptional performance and high
availability.
Bruce Claflin
Senior VP and General Manager,
Sales and Marketing
VMS TO OPENVMS: Maj or Rel eases
60
VMS V1 August 1978
Mul ti user , mul ti functi on
vi r tual memor y oper ati ng system
ODS-1 and ODS-2 fi l e systems
Integr ated DECnet
ANSI magtape suppor t
Languages
VAX-11 FORTRAN IV-PLUS
VAX-11 MACRO gener ates nati ve code
BASI C-PLUS 2 and COBOL
DCL and MCR command l anguage
i nter pr eter s
Suppor ted har dwar e
VAX-11/ 780 wi th a mi ni mum of 256 KB
of memor y, up to a maxi mum of 2 MB
2 RK06 di sks, or MASSBUS di sk
and tape
DMC-11 communi cati ons i nter face
CR11, LP11, and LA11
DZ11 wi th VT52 and LA36 ter mi nal s
Fl oati ng poi nt accel er ator
VMS V2 April 1980 ~3000 licenses
Suppor t for new pr ocessor VAX-11/ 750
Mor e nati ve l anguages
EDT scr een edi tor
SET HOST
MAIL, PATCH and SEARCH uti l i ti es
Shar ed sequenti al RMS fi l es
Suppor t for mul ti por t shar ed memor y
and DR780
Connect-to-i nter r upt dr i ver
User wr i tten system ser vi ces
VAX FORTRAN (77)
VMS V3 April 1982 ~10,000 licenses
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s
VAX-11/ 730, VAX 11/ 725, VAX-11/ 782
Asymmetr i c mul ti pr ocessi ng (ASMP)
for VAX-11/ 782
Suppor t for new ar chi tectur es, pr otocol s,
busses
System communi cati on ar chi tectur e
(SCS)
Mass stor age contr ol pr otocol (MSCP)
Lock management system ser vi ces
MONITOR uti l i ty for
per for mance moni tor i ng
BACKUP
Command defi ni ti on uti l i ty for DCL
Ter mi nal autobaud detecti on, CTRL/ T,
and hangup on l ogout
SPAWN and ATTACH
VAX V4 September 1984 ~
40,000 licenses
Suppor t for new pr ocessor VAX 8600
Mi cr oVAX I/ II (v4.1)
VAXstati on I/ II (v4.1)
VAXcl usters
Connecti on manager
Di str i buted l ock manager
Di str i buted fi l e system (F11BXQP)
Secur i ty enhancements
Command l i ne edi ti ng and
command r ecal l
Local ar ea ter mi nal ser ver
Access contr ol l i sts i mpl emented
Cl uster wi de oper ator contr ol
Var i abl e pr ompt str i ngs
VMS V4.4
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s VAX 8200,
VAX 8250, VAX 8300, VAX 8350
VAX 8500, VAX 8550, VAX 8700,
VAX 8800
ASMP suppor t for VAX 83xx and VAX
88xx systems
Cl uster packages VAX 8974 & VAX 8978
Di sk vol ume shadowi ng and
HSC suppor t
VMS/ V5 May 1988
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s VAX 6210,
6220, 6230, 6240, 8810, 8820, 8830, 8840,
8842, VAXser ver 6210, 6220
Symmetr i c mul ti pr ocessi ng
(SMP) suppor t
Mi xed i nterconnect VAXcl usters
Li cense management faci l i ty
Ter mi nal fal l back uti l i ty
Modul ar i zed executi ve
Str uctur ed DCL: I F-THEN-ELSE,
GOSUB and CALL
System Management enhancements
Dynami c fai l over of dual pathed di sks
New batch and pr i nt queue featur es
AUTOGEN Feedback
DEC Windows (v5.1) VMS V5.2
September 1989, ~300,000 licenses
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s VAX &
VAXserver 6400 seri es, VAXserver 3100
Cl uster s of 96 nodes
Har dwar e r el ease
V5.2-1 October 1989
Mi croVAX 3100
VAXstati on 3100 Model 38/ 48
VAXstati on 6000 Seri es 4XX
VMS V5.4 October 1990
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s
VAX 6000-510,520
Vector pr ocessi ng opti on for
VAX 6000-4xx
DCL commands for Faul t Tol er ant
(VAXft) systems
TPU enhancements
DECwi ndows enhancements
MSCP l oad bal anci ng and pr efer r ed path
Password hi story. Di cti onary and si te
speci fi c passwor d fi l ter s
Har dwar e r el eases
V5.4-0A October 1990
VAX 9000
V5.4-1, December 1990, r epl aced
VAX 9000 SMP
VAXstati on 3100 Model 76
VAX 4000 Model 200
VAXft model s 110, 310, 410, 610, 612
VMS V5.5 November 1991
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s Mi cr oVAX
3100 Model s 30, 40 & 80
VAX & VAXserver 6000-6xx seri es
VAX 4000 Model s 60, 500 & 600
VAXstati on 4000 Model 60 & VLC
New queue manager
New l i censi ng featur es
LAT enhancements (SET HOST/ LAT,
LATmasterfeatures)
Phase II Shadowi ng (host based
shadowi ng)
Cl uster wi de tape ser vi ce (TMSCP)
New RTLs - DECthr eads and BLAS
fast-vector maths l i br ar y
Har dwar e r el eases
V5.5-2HW September 1992
Mi cr oVAX 3100 Model 90,
VAX 4000 Model s 100 & 400
VAX 7000 Model 600
VAX 10000 Model 600
VAXstati on 4000 Model 90
V5.5-2 September 1992
VAX 7000 Model s 610, 620, 630, 640,
800 thr ough 860
VAXstati on Model 90A
V5.5-2H4 August 1993
Mi cr oVAX 3100 Model s 85,88,95,96
VAX 4000 Model s 100A, 105A, 106A, 108,
500A, 505A, 600A, 700A, 705A, 800A
VAXstati on 4000 Model 96
V5.5-2HF August 1993
VAXft Model 810
61
OpenVMS/AXP V1.0 November 1992 -
Alpha is here!
Suppor t for new Al pha pr ocessor s
DEC 3000 Model s 400, 400S, 500 & 500S
DEC 4000 Model 600
DEC 7000 Model 610
Based on VMS V5.4
DECmi gr ate for tr ansl ati ng VAX i mages
MACRO-32 compi l er
No cl uster s, no RMS j our nal i ng, no
shadowi ng, no SMP
OpenVMS/VAX V6.0 J une 1993
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s VAX 7000
Model 650/ 660, VAX 10000 Model
650/ 660
Rati onal i zed and Enhanced secur i ty
(Level C2 compl i ance)
Mul ti pl e queue manager s acr oss cl uster
HELP/ MESSAGE uti l i ty
Suppor t for I SO 9660 CD-ROM for mat
Adapti ve Pool Management
SYSMAN cl uster wi de SHUTDOWN
and star tup l oggi ng
Cl uster wi de Vi r tual I/ O cache
Extended physi cal and vi r tual
addr essi ng
Pr otected subsystems
DECnet/ OSI
DECwi ndows XUI r epl aced by
DECwi ndows Moti f
OpenVMS/VAX V6.1 April 1994 &
OpenVMS/Alpha V6.1 May 1994
VAX and Al pha
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s
Al phaSer ver 2100 4/ 200 & 4/ 275
DEC 3000 Model s 700 & 900
DEC 7000 Model 710 & 7xxx
VAX 7000 Model s 7xxx
PCSI Pr oduct i nstal l ati on uti l i ty
(PRODUCT command)
Shadowi ng and RMS Jour nal i ng
for Al pha
DECamds bundl ed wi th oper ati ng
system
CLUE Cr ash dump uti l i ty
DPML standar d maths l i br ar y
C++ suppor t
DECnet/ OSI Extended Node Names
OpenVMS/VAX V6.2 May 1995 &
OpenVMS/Alpha V6.2 J une 1995
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s
Al phaSer ver 2100 5/ 250, 8200 5/ 300,
8400 5/ 300
Fr eewar e V1.0 CD di str i buted wi th
oper ati ng system
Automati c for ei gn commands
(l i ke UNIX PATH mechani sm)
RAID subsystem suppor t
DCL TCP/ I P functi ons e.g.: COPY/ FTP
and SMTP tr anspor t i n MAIL
OpenVMS Management Stati on
SCSI cl uster s
SCSI-2 Tagged Command Queui ng
BACKUP Manager - Scr een or i ented
i nter face
Har dwar e r el eases
V6.2-1H1 (Al pha) November 1994
Al phaSer ver 1000A 4/ 266
Al phaBook 1
Al phaSer ver 2100A 4/ 275, 5/ 250 & 5/ 300
Al phaStati on 255/ 233 & 255/ 300
V6.2-1H2 (Al pha) Januar y 1995
Al phaSer ver 300 4/ 266
Al phaSer ver 1000A 5/ 266, 5/ 333 & 5/ 400
Al phaSer ver 4000 5/ 300E
Al phaSer ver 4100 5/ 400, 5/ 300, 5/ 400 &
5/ 466
Al phaSer ver 8200 5/ 440
Al phaSer ver 8400 5/ 440
Al phaStati on 500/ 300, 500/ 400 & 500/ 500
Al phaStati on 600 5/ 266, 600 5/ 300 &
5/ 333
OpenVMS/VAX V7.0 &
OpenVMS/Alpha V7.0 December 1995
Pr ocess affi ni ti es and capabi l i ti es fr om
DCL (Set PROCESS/ AFFI NI TY)
HYPERSORT Hi gh per for mance SORT
uti l i ty (Al pha)
Ingegr ated networ k and i nter net suppor t
New MAIL uti l i ty (r ewr i tten)
Ti mezone and UTC suppor t
64-bi t addr essi ng new system ser vi ces
Kernel threads
Spi r al og hi gh per for mance fi l e system
Dump fi l e compr essi on (Al pha)
Wi nd/ U Wi ndows Wi n32 API
Fast I/ O and Fast Path hi ghl y
opti mi zed I/ O
OpenVMS/VAX V7.1 & OpenVMS/Alpha
V7.1 December 1996
Suppor t for new pr ocessor s
Al phaSer ver 800 5/ 333 & 5/ 400
Pi pes
Wi ndows NT Affi ni ty
PPP pr otocol
Inter net pr oduct sui te
Dump Off System Di sk for Al pha
Exter nal Authenti cati on (LAN manager
si ngl e si gnon)
100BaseT Fast ether net suppor t (Al pha)
Memor y channel hi gh per for mance
cl uster i nter connect
Ver y Lar ge Memor y (VLM) suppor t
BACKUP API
CDE i nter face for DECwi ndows
64 bi t system ser vi ces
Schedul i ng system ser vi ces
Compiled by J ohn Gillings Sydney CSC,
September 1997.
Sources: Ruth Goldenberg, Max Burnet,
Steve Tolna, Thomas Schwarz, Mark
Buda, Sharon Rogenmoser, Kim Kinney,
Ken Blaylock, Rod Barela, Kelly Oglesby,
Marie Teixeira, Michael J unge, J ulian
Sandoval, Mark Masias, J ason Gallant,
Brian Breton, Laura Buckley, Richard
Rhodes, Dave Pina, Sue Clavin, Tim
Ellison, J ohn Manning, Dave Hutchins,
Paul McGrath, J udy Novey, Ian Ring, Ron
Decker, Stephen Hoffman, VMS marketing,
Sales Updates, Old PID material, VMS
information sheet ED-31080-48, VMS
SPDs, OpenVMS New Features Manuals
Edited by: Andy Goldstein
VAX and VMS Hist ory
1975
VAX ar chi tectur e commi ttee
for med wi th goal of bui l d-
i ng a computer that i s cul -
tur al l y compati bl e wi th
PDP-11, but wi th i ncr eased
address space of 32-bi ts.
The r esul t: VAX, the Vi r tual
Addr ess eXtensi on of the
PDP-11s 16-bi t ar chi tectur e.
VMS, the Vi r tual Memor y
System oper ati ng system
was devel oped si mul tane-
ousl y, al l owi ng compl ete
i ntegr ati on of har dwar e
and softwar e.
1977
Intr oducti on of VAX 11-/ 780,
the fi rst VAX system.
VMS V1.0 announced.
1978
VMS V1.0 shi pped. The devel opment
goal was to achi eve compati bi l i ty
between PDP-11 and VAX systems
so i nfor mati on and pr ogr ams coul d
be shar ed.
1981
VAX i nfor mati on ar chi tectur e
i ntr oduced, whi ch i ncl uded
VAX-11, FMS, DATATRIEVE,
CDD, RMS, and DBMS.
1979
DECnet Phase II
announced.
For tr an IV announced.
1980
VMS V2.0 shi pped, offer i ng
the i ndustr ys l ar gest ar r ay of
l anguages on one system.
DECnet Phase III announced.
VAX-11/ 750 i ntr oduced, the
second VAX fami l y member
and the i ndustr ys fi r st Lar ge
Scal e Integr ati on (LSI) 32-bi t
mi ni computer.
1982
VAX- 11/ 730 announced, the
thi rd VAX fami l y member,
the fi rst l ow-cost VAX
pr ocessor to fi t on 3 hex
boar ds, the fi r st VAX to
fi t i nto a 10.5-i nch-hi gh
r ackmountabl e box.
VMS V3.0 shi pped.
RA60 and RA81 di sk
dr i ves shi pped.
1983
DIGITAL announced VAXcl usters:
the capabi l i ty of tyi ng VAX pr ocessor s
together i n a l oose pr ocessor coupl i ng
that al l owed mul ti pl e VAX systems to
oper ate as a si ngl e system.
VAX-11/ 725 announced.
CI connecti vi ty i ntr oduced.
1984
VAX-11/ 785 i ntr oduced, the
most powerful si ngl e VAX
computer to date. CPU cycl e
ti me was 133ns, 50% faster
than the 200ns cycl e ti me
of the VAX-11/ 780.
VMS V4.0 announced.
VAX 8600 announced, the
fi r st of a new gener ati on of
VAX systems. Offered up to
4.2 ti mes the per for mance
of the VAX-11/ 780;
i ncr eased I/ O capabi l i ty
whi l e mai ntai ni ng I/ O
subsystem compati bi l i ty
wi th the VAX-11/ 780 and
VAX-11/ 785 systems.
VAXstati on I announced,
DIGITALs fi rst 32-bi t
si ngl e-user wor kstati on.
1985
Mi cr oVAX chi p i ntr oduced for
the Mi croVAX II, DIGITALs
fi r st 32-bi t mi cr opr ocessor .
Fi r st chi p manufactur ed wi th
i nter nal l y devel oped semi con-
ductor technol ogy. VAX-on-a-
chi p had the hi ghest l evel of
functi onal i ty of any 32-bi t
pr ocessor i n the i ndustr y.
VMS V4.2 shi pped.
1989
Intr oducti on of the VAX 6500 System,
DIGITALs most powerful and expand-
abl e VAX system i n a si ngl e cabi net.
VMS V5.1 and V5.2 shi pped.
Ri gel chi p set i ntr oduced. Shi pped
i n VAX 6400 system and l ater i n
VAX 4000 system.
1986
Top-of-the-l i ne VAX 8800, mi drange VAX
8300, and VAX 8200 announced, the fi r st
VAX systems to suppor t dual pr ocessor s.
Each machi ne i ncor por ated VAXBI, a
new hi gh-per for mance bus.
VMS V4.5 shi pped.
Local Area VAXcl usters systems i ntro-
duced, extendi ng di str i buted computi ng
to the Wor kgr oup vi a the Ether net and
br i ngi ng the softwar e advantages of the
VAXcl uster envi ronment i n Mi croVAX II
systems.
1988
VAX 6000 System pl atfor m announced. Bui l t on 3 key
technol ogi es: the DIGITAL CMOS VLSI VAX pr ocessor
(CVAX chi p), a symmetr i c mul ti pr ocessi ng har dwar e
and softwar e envi r onment, and the VAXB1 I/ O
i nter connect.
VMS V5.0 shi pped i n concer t wi th the VAX 6200
system.
1990
DIGITAL announced VAXft 3000
system. The fi r st faul t-tol er ant system
i n the i ndustr y to r un a mai nstr eam
oper ati ng system (VMS); fi r st system
i n whi ch ever y component, i ncl udi ng
the backpl ane, was mi r r or ed.
VAX 6500 shi pped wi th the Mar i ah
chi p set. The pr ocessor del i ver ed
appr oxi matel y 13 ti mes the power
of a VAX-11/ 780 system, per processor.
VMS V5.4 shi pped.
1987
VAX 8978 and 8974 systems i ntroduced,
DIGITALs most powerful systems to date,
offer i ng up to 50 ti mes the power of the
VAX-11/ 780 system.
VAXstati on 2000 announced, the fi r st
wor kstati on costi ng l ess than $5000,
whi ch ul ti matel y became the hi ghest
vol ume workstati on i n the i ndustry.
New gener ati on of Mi cr oVAX computer s
unvei l ed: the Mi cr oVAX 3500 and 3600.
CVAX chi p i ntr oduced, the second-gener -
ati on VLSI VAX mi cr opr ocessor , offer i ng
2.5 ti mes the power of i ts pr edecessor .
The companys fi r st i nter nal l y manufac-
tur ed CMOS mi cr opr ocessor .
1991
OpenVMS name change announced.
NVAX, DIGITALs fourth VAX mi croprocessor,
i mpl emented i n 0.75-mi cr ometer CMOS
technol ogy; shi pped i n VAX 6600 systems.
OpenVMS V5.5 shi pped.
DIGITAL and Mi cr osoft Cor por ati on
announced al l i ance al l owi ng Mi cr osoft
Wi ndows to retri eve and exchange data wi th
l ocal ar ea networ k ser ver s r unni ng DIGITAL
PATHWORKS software.
DECnet Phase V announced.
1992
DIGITAL announced Al pha, 64-bi t
pr ocessor ar chi tectur e for 21st centur y
computi ng, Engi neer ed to suppor t
mul ti pl e oper ati ng systems and
desi gned to i ncr ease per for mance by
a factor of 1000 over i ts 25-year l i fe.
The fi r st Al pha chi p was the 21064,
whi ch pr ovi ded r ecor d-br eaki ng
200-Mhz per for mance.
Fi r st-gener ati on Al pha systems
i ncl uded the DEC 3000 Model s 400
and 500 wor kstati ons, DEC 4000
system, DEC 7000 System, and
DEC 10000 System.
Mi cr oVAX 3100 Model 40 announced.
OpenVMS AXP V1.0 shi pped.
1993
OpenVMS AXP V1.5 shi pped;
OpenVMS VAX 6.0 shi pped.
DIGITAL 2100 Al pha AXP
Ser ver announced.
1995
Affi ni ty for OpenVMS and Wi ndows NT
pr ogr am announced.
Affi ni ty Wave I announced Appl i cati on
Vendor Par tner i ng.
OpenVMS Al pha V6.2 shi pped;
OpenVMS VAX V6.2 shi pped.
VAX4000 Model 106A and VAXstati on 4000
Model 96 announced.
Tur bol aser AS8400/ AS8200, AS 400 announced.
Mi cr oVAX 3100 Model 96 announced.
1997
Wave IV announced Future
str ategy for unl i mi ted hi gh-end
OpenVMS VAX V7.1 shi pped;
OpenVMS Al pha V7.1 shi pped.
Al phaSer ver 800 announced.
Al phaSer ver 1200 announced.
1994
OpenVMS VAX V6.1 shi pped;
OpenVMS Al pha V6.1 shi pped.
VAX4000 Model 505A/ 705A.
announced.
Mi cr oVAX 3100 Model 85
announced.
1996
Affi ni ty Waves II and III
announced.
Wave II Real Worl d
Depl oyment.
Wave III Advanced Partner
Depl oyment.
OpenVMS Al pha V7.0 wi th
64-bi t VLM/ VLDM suppor t
shi pped; OpenVMS VAX 7.0
shi pped.
VAX 7000 Model 800, VAX 4000
Model 108, and Mi cr oVAX 3100
Model 88 & 98 announced.
Al phaSer ver 4000/ 4100,
Al phaSer ver 1000A and
Al phaSer ver 300 announced.
In the very long term, we see
OpenVMS as the huge, bullet-
proof, 24x365, disaster-tolerant
data store for NT applications, in
general. That kind of absolute no-
excuses availability isnt going to
be matched for a long time by
anybody. In an Internet world,
more and more of our customers
need that availability right now.
Wes Melling
VP of Windows NT and
OpenVMS Syst ems Group
Pr i nted i n U.S.A. Rel .# 97/ 97 10 57 20.0 Copyr i ght 1997 Di gi tal Equi pment Cor por ati on. Al l Ri ghts Reser ved.
The fol l owi ng ar e tr ademar ks of Di gi tal Equi pment Cor por ati on: DIGITAL,
the DIGITAL l ogo, ALPHA, ALPHA AXP, Al phaChi p, Al phaSer ver , BI, Busi ness
Recover y Ser ver , CI, DATATRIEVE, DEC 3000, DEC 4000, DEC 7000, DECamds,
DECchi p, DECmi gr ate, DECnet, DECsystem, DECWORLD, FMS, HSC, HSC70,
LSI-11, Mi cr oVAX, MSCP, OpenVMS, PDP, PDP-11, PDP-11/ 70, RSTS, RSX-11M,
RT-11, SA, SBI, UNIBUS, ULTRIX, VAX, VAX FORTRAN, VAX 4000, VAX 6000,
VAX 6400, VAX 6500, VAX 8200, VAX 8300, VAX 8600, VAX 8800, VAX 9000,
VAXBI, VAXcl uster, VAXft, VAXserver, VAXstati on, VAX-11/ 730, VAX-11/ 750,
VAX-11/ 780, VAX-11/ 782, VAX-11/ 785, VLM, VMS, VMScl uster.
Thi r d-par ty tr ademar ks: Ander sen Consul ti ng i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar k of
Ar thur Ander sen & Co. BASIC i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar k of the Tr ustees of
Dar tmouth Col l ege, D.B.A. Dar tmouth Col l ege. Ener gi zer and Ener gi zer Bunny
ar e r egi ster ed tr ademar ks of Ever eady Batter y Company, Inc. For te i s a r egi s-
ter ed tr ademar k of For te Softwar e, Inc. IBM i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar k of
Inter nati onal Busi ness Machi nes Cor por ati on. IEEE and POSIX ar e r egi ster ed
tr ademar ks of The Insti tute of El ectr i cal and El ectr oni cs Engi neer s, Inc. Intel i s
a r egi ster ed tr ademar k of Intel Cor por ati on. Mi cr osoft, Wi ndows, and WIN32
ar e r egi ster ed tr ademar ks and Wi ndows NT i s a tr ademar k of Mi cr osoft
Cor por ati on. MIPS i s a tr ademar k of MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. Moti f and
OSF/ Moti f ar e r egi ster ed tr ademar ks of Open Softwar e Foundati on, Inc.
MUMPS i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar ks of Massachusetts Gener al Hospi tal . Ol i vetti
i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar k of Ing. C. Ol i vetti . Scr abbl e i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar k
of Mi l ton Br adl ey. Xer ox i s a r egi ster ed tr ademar k of Xer ox Cor por ati on.
X/ Open i s a tr ademar k of X/ Open Company Li mi ted. UNIX i s a r egi ster ed tr ade-
mar k i n the Uni ted States and other countr i es, l i censed excl usi vel y thr ough
X/ Open Company, Ltd. Al l other pr oducts or company names ar e used for i den-
ti fi cati on pur poses onl y, and may be tr ademar ks of thei r r especti ve owner s.