Obituary – Ken Olsen, the founder of minicomputer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) died last Sunday. He was 84 years old. Another pioneer lost to the world.
Years ago I worked exclusively on DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) mini computers. In my opinion the best systems out there on a price performance basis at the time. I installed about a hundred DEC systems, first PDP and then, its successor, VAX in my time. They were the real time competitor to the batch mainframe which was seen as the only real computer in those days.
The founder of DEC was Ken Olsen, an inventor and another strong business character. He wasn’t perfect as he made mistakes near the end when DEC was bought out by Compaq but he gave the world systems that allowed people like me to build business and development systems which were resilient, scalable and at minimal cost.
I still have several VAXStations and a MicroVAX in my store room, the CISC processors made obsolete when the RISC Alpha chips became the primary platform. They would still work if I plugged some SCSI disks in though I suspect the MicroVAX 3400 DSSI disks are next to impossible to get.
I salute Ken Olsen. Working with his inventions made me the person I am today. The world is again short of another badly needed innovator.
Ken Olsen, the founder of minicomputer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) has died
Obituary – Ken Olsen, the founder of minicomputer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) died last Sunday. He was 84 years old. Another pioneer lost to the world.
Years ago I worked exclusively on DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) mini computers. In my opinion the best systems out there on a price performance basis at the time. I installed about a hundred DEC systems, first PDP and then, its successor, VAX in my time. They were the real time competitor to the batch mainframe which was seen as the only real computer in those days.
The founder of DEC was Ken Olsen, an inventor and another strong business character. He wasn’t perfect as he made mistakes near the end when DEC was bought out by Compaq but he gave the world systems that allowed people like me to build business and development systems which were resilient, scalable and at minimal cost.
I still have several VAXStations and a MicroVAX in my store room, the CISC processors made obsolete when the RISC Alpha chips became the primary platform. They would still work if I plugged some SCSI disks in though I suspect the MicroVAX 3400 DSSI disks are next to impossible to get.
I salute Ken Olsen. Working with his inventions made me the person I am today. The world is again short of another badly needed innovator.