Editing Digital Equipment Corporation (section)

=== Origins (1944–1958) ===
[[File:Digital Equipment Corporation 1987 logo.svg|thumb|Original Digital Equipment Corporation logo designed by Elliot Hendrickson in 1957,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200712/ancient_history_the_digital_logo.html|title=Ancient history: the Digital logo|last=Batchelder|first=Ned|date=December 16, 2007}}</ref> used from 1957 to 1993]]
[[File:Digital Equipment Corporation stacked logo.svg|thumb|upright=0.25|Alternate logo, briefly used concurrently]]
[[File:Locale_RS6_Maynard MA Clock Tower Place.jpg|thumb|upright|DEC was headquartered at a former wool mill in Maynard, Massachusetts, from 1957 until 1992.]]
[[Ken Olsen]] and [[Harlan Anderson]] were two engineers who had been working at [[MIT Lincoln Laboratory]]<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 8, 2011
|title=Ken Olsen, Founder of DEC, Dies at 84
|first=Glenn|last=Rifkin
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/technology/business-computing/08olsen.html}}</ref> on the lab's various computer projects. The Lab is best known for their work on what would today be known as "interactivity", and their machines were among the first where operators had direct control over programs running in real-time. These had started in 1944 with the famed [[Whirlwind (computer)|Whirlwind]], which was originally developed to make a [[flight simulator]] for the [[US Navy]], although this was never completed.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.mitre.org/news/releases/09/whirlwind_07_01_2009.html|title=MITRE's Project Whirlwind Computer Collection Transferred to MIT|publisher=MITRE|date=July 1, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620113119/http://www.mitre.org/news/releases/09/whirlwind_07_01_2009.html|archive-date=June 20, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> Instead, this effort evolved into the [[Semi Automatic Ground Environment|SAGE]] system for the [[US Air Force]], which used large screens and [[light gun]]s to allow operators to interact with [[radar]] data stored in the computer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mitre.org/about/sage.html|title=Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513053849/http://www.mitre.org/about/sage.html|archive-date=May 13, 2009|url-status=dead|website=MITRE|date=January 25, 2005}}</ref>

When the Air Force project wound down, the Lab turned their attention to an effort to build a version of the Whirlwind using [[transistor]]s in place of [[vacuum tube]]s. In order to test their new circuitry, they first built a small [[18-bit computing|18-bit]] machine known as [[TX-0]], which first ran in 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/1721.1/4132/1/RLE-TR-627-42827671.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629111143/http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/1721.1/4132/1/RLE-TR-627-42827671.pdf |archive-date=2007-06-29 |url-status=live|title=TX-0 Computer History|first=John A.|last=McKenzie|date=October 1, 1974}}</ref> When the TX-0 successfully proved the basic concepts, attention turned to a much larger system, the [[36-bit computing|36-bit]] [[TX-2]] with a then-enormous 64 kWords of [[core memory]]. Core was so expensive that parts of TX-0's memory were stripped for the TX-2, and what remained of the TX-0 was then given to [[MIT]] on permanent loan.<ref name="cm">{{cite web|url=http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V08.html|title=Highlights from ''The Computer Museum Report'' Volume 8 Spring 1984|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615180503/http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V08.html|archive-date=June 15, 2006|url-status=dead|publisher=[[The Computer Museum, Boston|The Computer Museum]], Boston, MA|via=ed-thelen.org|access-date=February 19, 2010}}</ref>

At MIT, [[Ken Olsen]] and [[Harlan Anderson]] noticed something odd: students would line up for hours to get a turn to use the stripped-down TX-0, while largely ignoring a faster [[IBM]] machine that was also available. The two decided that the draw of [[interactive computing]] was so strong that they felt there was a market for a small machine dedicated to this role, essentially a commercialized TX-0. They could sell this to users where the graphical output or real-time operation would be more important than outright performance. Additionally, as the machine would cost much less than the larger systems then available, it would also be able to serve users that needed a lower-cost solution dedicated to a specific task, where a larger 36-bit machine would not be needed.<ref name=companyhistory/>

In 1957, when the pair and Ken's brother Stan sought capital, they found that the American business community was hostile to investing in computer companies. Many smaller computer companies had come and gone in the 1950s, wiped out when new technical developments rendered their platforms obsolete, and even large companies like [[RCA Corporation|RCA]] and [[General Electric]] were failing to make a profit in the market. The only serious expression of interest came from [[Georges Doriot]] and his [[American Research and Development Corporation]] (AR&D). Worried that a new computer company would find it difficult to arrange further financing, Doriot suggested the fledgling company change its business plan to focus less on computers, and even change their name from "Digital Computer Corporation".<ref name="kewney20081129">{{Cite web |last=Kewney |first=Guy |date=2008-11-29 |title=What if computers went back to the '70s too? |url=https://www.theregister.com/2008/11/29/personal_computing/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250423012002/https://www.theregister.com/2008/11/29/personal_computing/ |archive-date=April 23, 2025 |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=The Register |language=en }}</ref>

The pair returned with an updated [[business plan]] that outlined two phases for the company's development. They would start by selling [[computer module]]s as stand-alone devices that could be purchased separately and wired together to produce a number of different digital systems for lab use. Then, if these "digital modules" were able to build a self-sustaining business, the company would be free to use them to develop a complete computer in its Phase II.<ref name="proposal">{{cite web|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/dec/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1957.102664472.pdf|title=A Proposal to American Research and Development Corporation 27 May 1957|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416092909/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/dec/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1957.102664472.pdf|archive-date=April 16, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> The newly christened "Digital Equipment Corporation"{{r|kewney20081129}} received $70,000 from AR&D for a 70% share of the company,<ref name=companyhistory/>{{dead link|date=February 2020}}{{better source needed|date=February 2020}} AR&D's SVP [[Dorothy Rowe (venture capitalist)|Dorothy Rowe]] joined as a Director and also served as Treasurer,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/doriot/innovation-vc/ard/ |title=GEORGES F. DORIOT. ARD |website=Harvard Business School Baker Library Historical Collections|date=2025 }}</ref>{{failed verification|date=October 2025}} and the company began operations in a [[American Civil War|Civil War]]-era [[Assabet Woolen Mill|textile mill]] in [[Maynard, Massachusetts]], where plenty of inexpensive manufacturing space was available.