The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976.

The VAX-11/780, introduced October 25, 1977, was the first of a range of popular and influential computers implementing the VAX ISA. The VAX family was a huge success for DEC, with the last members arriving in the early 1990s.

The VAX-11/780 was the first member to ship of the VAX family of larger computers. The VAX series was conceived as the successor to the successful PDP-11 series of minicomputers ; in order to make the VAX seem more PDP-11 friendly, they retained the -11 moniker for the first VAXen, and provided the ability to execute PDP-11 object code - hence ...

With VAX, DEC extended its PDP-11 minicomputer architecture from 16 to 32 bits. The first model in the VAX “superminicomputer” line was the VAX-11/780. The line rivaled “much more expensive mainframe computers in performance,” according to the online Computer History Museum.

Between 1977 and 2000, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) produced a wide range of computer systems under the VAX brand, all based on various implementations of the DEC-proprietary instruction set architecture of the same name.

The VAX-11 Information Directory and In­ dex briefly describes all system documentation, defining the intended audi­ ence for each manual and providing a synopsis of each manual's contents.

The VAX line of 32-bit “super-minicomputers” rivaled much more expensive mainframe computers. Its success made DEC the second-largest company in the industry. VAX, a “complex instruction set computer,” was widely cloned in Eastern Europe.

In addition, while we have become accus- tomed to single chip microprocessors with mini- mal interfaces to probe their internal operations, the VAX 11/780 CPU spanned about 20 boards. One such board was the microcode store, which directed much of the behavior of the machine.

Dec 9, 2018 · The Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) was a family of minicomputers produced by DEC from the mid-1970s up to the late 1980s. Its members included minicomputers such as the VAX-11/780, VAX-11/782, and so on. The VAX product line was a competitor to the IBM System/370 series of computers.

VAX assembly language is introduced via movement, integer arithmetic, and branch instructions. The symbolic debugger is introduced for input/output operations. Addressing is divided into two chapters, simple addressing and register addressing.