October 25, 1977 Digital Equipment Corporation introduced the first VAX model - the VAX-11/780. Becoming the first commercially available 32-bit computer and was a major milestone in the digital-age.

The name "VAX" originated as an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension, both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit extension of the older 16-bit PDP-11 and because it was (after Prime Computer) an early adopter of virtual memory to manage larger address space. October, 1980 The VAX-11/750 was Digital's midrange VAX processor. Ninety percent of the VAX-11/750 hardware logic was implemented with fewer custom components accounting for the compactness, reliability, and low-cost of VAX-11/750 hardware.

Along with its clustering capabilities, gate array logic efficiency and compact size made the VAX 11-750 a natural choice for department-level-applications in large organizations or demanding central-level applications with in smaller organizations. 1982 The VAX-11/782 system has the power to run many large computational jobs concurrently with interactive users. It consists of two VAX-11/780 processors linked through MA780 MOS multi-port shared memory. All peripheral devices connect to the primary processor, while the attached CPU provides additional computational resources.

Applications include financial modeling, experimental data reduction, file transfers, electronic and mechanical design using interactive graphics, and business forecasting. April, 1982 The VAX-11/730 is the highly expandable member of the VAX family-smaller and lower priced than the larger VAX systems. It takes VAX capabilities into almost any environment, providing up to 24 users with the large-program capacity and high-performance features found in larger systems. You have more disk storage options and communication options than with our smaller systems. And you can add the optional floating-point accelerator to increase performance in engineering, scientific, laboratory, and other numeric-intensive environments. October 1983 The VAX-11/725 was the first deskside VAX system and brought VAX/VMS computing to the office environment. Its lowest cost Unibus-compatible system, used the same processors as the VAX-11/730, but included the company's 52MB RC25 disk subsystem and supported up to 3MB of memory. About the size of a two-drawer filing cabinet, this computer was half the height of the VAX-11/730 and could fit under most office desks or tables. It was designed specifically for open-office locations. Plus it was quiet and required no special air conditioning. April, 1984 The VAX-11/785 system, was DEC's top-of-the-line VAX computer in 1984. Cache was a full 32 thousand bytes that added a special advantage if your programs contained complex subroutines. There was also an optional floating point accelerator for numeric intensive applications. If floor space was a concern, the VAX-11/785 system fit in the same size cabinet as a VAX-11/780.

The VAX 11/785 performed better than the VAX-11/780. October, 1984 The VAX 8600 system gave you unprecedented capacity for applications growth. It was the first of a new generation of large scale VAX processors, with memory expansion to 32MB and storage up to 1.6GB. Yet the VAX 8600 system maintained complete architectural compatibility with every other VAX processor.

The VAX 8600 had four times the performance of the VAX-11/780 by using four-stage instruction pipelining that allowed up to four simultaneous instructions that could be in several stages of execution at any time. December, 1985 The VAX 8650 when unveiled was the most powerful 32-bit computer. It was like a ″superminicomputer″ performing as many as 6.6 million instructions a second. It was 44 percent more powerful than the VAX 8600, and six times more powerful than the VAX-11/780.

The VAX 8650 was designed to bring the VAX solution to the most demanding applications involving large numbers of simultaneous users needing access to common files and advanced computation. January, 1986 The VAX 8200 was a general purpose VAX designed for technical as well as commercial applications including various office environments. It consumed half the power of a VAX 11/780 and the low profile of the machine was a benefit for organizations with limited space, who wanted a rack mountable computer.

The VAX 8300 was designed to deliver additional performance than the VAX 8200 because it included an additional CPU. January, 1986 The VAX 8800 performed well in computation-intensive, multi-stream workloads. These types of workloads are common in the technical applications of engineering and science. For instance, the VAX 8800 offered significantly more performance in applications such as discrete and continuous simulations, and finite element analysis. April, 1988 The VAX 6000 was expandable because of a combination of innovative engineering and symmetric multi-processing technology that allowed the machine to perform from 2.8 VUP's to 36 VUP's and support up to 650 users because all you had to do was add another processor board for better performance.

If you needed more power, you could form a VAX-cluster that included more VAX 6000's or other VAX computers for the power desired. You could manage and access the cluster like one systems because it was one system.
Star (Benchmark) After it was launched, the VAX-11/780 quickly became the performance standard against which all following computers were measured.
Comet The VAX-11/750 was the second member of the VAX family and the industry's first Large Scale Integration (LSI) 32-bit minicomputer.
Atlas The VAX-11/782 system could run some of the largest programs concurrently with interactive users.
Nebula Sized to the needs of office environments, the VAX-11/730 was perfect for clerical, professional, and managerial tasks.
Low-Cost Nebula The VAX-11/725 was the first deskside VAX system and brought VAX/VMS computing to the office environment.
Superstar The VAX-11/785 was 50% faster than the VAX-11/780. This resulted in more throughput, responsiveness and user connectivity.
Venus Introducing The VAX 8600 System, the successor of the VAX-11/785, and was the best selling high-end VAX of its time.
Morningstar The VAX 8650 was the last VAX to be 100% compatible with the VAX-11/780 and to have the PDP-11 compatibility mode.
Scorpio The VAX 8200 System had one processor and the VAX 8300 System had two. Otherwise, both systems were functionally identical.
Nautilus The VAX 8800 was a high-end tightly coupled dyadic machine that had 12 times the performance of the VAX-11/780 machine.
Calypso The VAX 6000 offered slightly higher performance for half the cost, resulting in the discontinuation of the VAX 8000 product line.

Virtual Address eXtension