Information AboutDecstation |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DECSTATION | |
| dec hardware | |
| computer workstations | |
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The DECstation was a brand of computers built by DEC , and refers to two distinct lines of computer systems—the first released in the 1970s as a Word Processing system, and the second (and more widely known) released in 1989 as computer workstations based on the MIPS Architecture . The MIPS-based workstations ran Ultrix , a DEC-proprietary version of UNIX . FIRST DECSTATION LINE The first line of computer systems given the DECstation name were word processing systems based on the PDP-8 . These systems, built into a VT-52 Terminal , were also known as the VT-78 . SECOND DECSTATION LINE The second line of DECstations began with the DECstation 2100 and 3100, released in 1989, which were the first commercially available RISC -based machines built by DEC. At the time DEC was mostly known for their CISC systems including the successful PDP and VAX lines. The DECstation 3100 was claimed to be the world's fastest UNIX workstation at the time. When it was introduced it was about three times as fast as the VAXstation 3100 which was introduced at about the same time. In contrast to the VAX (and the later DEC Alpha architecture), no version of the VMS Operating System was ever released for DECstations. Server configurations of DECstation models, distributed without a Framebuffer , were called " DECsystem " but should not be confused with some PDP-10 machines of the same name. The MIPS-based DECstations were used as the first target system and development platform for the Mach Microkernel , as well as early development of the Windows NT operating system. Shortly prior to the release of the DEC Alpha systems, a port of OSF/1 to the DECstation was completed, but it was not commercially released. More recently, various free operating systems such as NetBSD and Linux /MIPS have been ported to the MIPS-based DECstations, extending their useful life by providing a modern operating system. The first generation of commercially marketed DEC Alpha systems, the AlphaStation series, were very similar to contemporaneous MIPS-based DECstations, which were sold alongside the Alpha systems as the DECstation line was gradually phased out. Both used the TurboChannel expansion bus for video and network cards, as well as being sold with the same mice, monitors, and keyboards. Various DECstation models (which used a MIPS CPU ) are emulated by the GXemul software project. MODELS
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