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    Information Research Services Updated: 05 March 1998
         
             
                 
              1961:
DECUS, the DIGITAL Computer Users Society, meets for the first time at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts.
                     
              September 1962:
The
PDP-1 operating system, the world's first timesharing system, is written by engineers at MIT and BBN for the PDP-1.
                     
              1964:
Tops 10 is developed as the major user software interface for Digital's 36-bit machines.
                     
              1968:
EDUsystems are introduced.
                     
              1969:
FOCAL version 1.0 is issued.
                     
              1970:
MUMPS software for the PDP-15 is introduced.
                     
              1971:
RSTS-11, a timesharing operating system for the PDP-11, is introduced.
                     
              May 1973:
RSX-11D, a real-time operating system for online data acquisition, monitoring and control on the PDP-11, is introduced.
                     
              July 1973:
RT-11, a real-time operating system for monitoring and control, is introduced.
                     
              September 1973:
DIGITAL develops
DEC Data Communications Message Protocol (DDCMP) as a standard for its future computer-to-computer communications.
                     
              1974:
RSX-11M, a real-time operating system for online control, is introduced for use on the PDP-11.
                     
              January 1976:
TOPS-20, a new virtual memory operating system, is introduced for use with the DECSYSTEM-20.
                     
              February 1978:
V1.0 of the
VMS operating system ships.
                     
              February 1980:
Introduction of
DECnet Phase III -- the most advanced networking in the computer industry.
                     
              April 1980:
VMS version 2.0 is released.
                     
              October 1981:
VAX information architecture is introduced.
                     
              April 1982:
VMS V3 ships.
                     
              May 1982:
ALL-IN-1, a new concept in
integrated office software is introduced.
                     
              October 1983:
DECnet Phase IV is announced.
                     
              December 1983:
DECtalk, a text-to-speech system that allows computers to talk, is announced.
                     
              April 1984:
DIGITAL announces the
Rdb relational database management system.
                     
              June 1984:
DIGITAL introduces
ULTRIX-32, the first native UNIX from DIGITAL for the VAX family of systems.
                     
              September 1984:
VMS V4 ships.
                     
              January 1985:
DIGITAL introduces
VAX ACMS (Application, Control and Management System).
                     
              1985:
VMS V4.4 ships.
                     
              January 1988:
DIGITAL extends its
Network Applications Support (NAS) facilities to integrate MS-DOS, OS/2 and UNIX systems into the open DECnet/OSI network environment.
                     
              April 1988:
VMS V5 is released.
                     
              July 1988:
DECtp is introduced.
                     
              January 1989:
DIGITAL announces DECwindows in VMS V5.2. The new version of the famous operating system is part of the broadest set of
desktop solutions announced by DIGITAL to date.
                     
              October 1990:
DIGITAL announces its commitment to open standards for
VMS.
                     
              October 1990:
VMS V5.4 ships.
                     
              June 1991:
DIGITAL introduces
DECnet Phase V, which supports OSI standards and networks of essentially unlimited size.
                     
              September 1991:
The industry's first implementation of an object request broker is shipped under the name
Application Control Architecture (ACA) services.
                 
              November 1991:
DIGITAL releases
VMS V5.5.
                     
              November 1991:
DIGITAL and Microsoft announce an alliance allowing Microsoft Windows to retrieve and exchange data with local area network servers running DIGITAL PATHWORKS software.
                 
              November 1992:
DIGITAL releases
OpenVMS/AXP V1.0 as part of its Alpha family of products.
                     
              March 1993:
DIGITAL ships
OSF/1 UNIX for Alpha Systems.
                 
              June 1993:
DIGITAL ships
OpenVMS/VAX V6.0.
                     
              September 1993:
DIGITAL and Microsoft ship the
Windows NT operating system for Alpha systems.
                     
              April - May 1994:
DIGITAL ships
OpenVMS/VAX V6.1 and OpenVMS/Alpha V6.1.
                     
              August 1994:
OSF/1 V 3.0 ships.
                     
              March 1995:
DIGITAL ships the industry's first commercial high-performance Fortran compiler in
DEC Fortran 90.
                     
              May 1995:
DIGITAL announces the
Affinity Program for OpenVMS. The Program helps customers implement the complementary strengths of OpenVMS and Windows NT.
                     
              May - June 1995:
DIGITAL releases
OpenVMS/VAX V6.2 and OpenVMS/Alpha V6.2.
                     
              November 1995:
DIGITAL introduces
FX!32.
                     
              December 1995:
OpenVMS/VAX V7.0 and OpenVMS/Alpha V7.0 are released.
                     
              March 1996:
DIGITAL announces a new release of its industry-leading 64-bit operating system,
DIGITAL UNIX Version 4.0.
                     
              December 1996:
OpenVMS/VAX V7.1 and OpenVMS/Alpha V7.1 are released.