While the VAX 32-bit architecture
was important, it was also the first time designers built hardware
and software (VMS, later hp OpenVMS) together from the ground up,
making the system tightly integrated and providing unprecedented
levels of reliability, data integrity, scalability, and flexibility.
Programs written for a small microVAX could be shifted to more
powerful VAX systems without rewriting.
All of this made VAX systems the first computer to combine the
functionality, capacity, and performance of a mainframe with the
interactive capabilities, flexibility, and price/performance of
a minicomputer.
Other forward-looking innovations associated with VAX systems
include
- the use of different sizes of fully powered computers linked
together in a common network, prefiguring the concept of client-server
computing
- the introduction of clustering in 1983 through the creation
of software that connected groups of VAX computers into a single
system, providing scalability and higher availability long before
these became industry buzzwords
It Just Keeps Going … and Going
Customer loyalty to VAX systems has been remarkable. Even though
it can now be outperformed by many PCs, an estimated 100,000 VAX
computers are still operating in the world. One reason is their
extraordinary reliability.
"We ran those machines for years without
rebooting them."
Cliff Pederson, Sunoco manager of information technology, in
The Houston Chronicle |
One user welded the casing of his VAX/VMS machine together
so that no one could get into the box. There was no reason to get
inside because the system had been running for the last ten years.
Another reason VAX systems are still in use is the OpenVMS operating
systems. Evolving directly from the original VMS operating system,
OpenVMS has become an industry standard in reliability, scalability,
data integrity, and continuous computing. Today most stock exchanges
and electronic funds transfer activities, which must run continuously
and error-free, are on clusters of AlphaServer systems with OpenVMS.
Moving Forward
The majority of VAX customers have already shifted to the hp AlphaServer
family. Launched in 1992 and designed to provide an easy transition,
AlphaServer systems retained
VAX's trademark reliability and have now taken their place at the
forefront of the eBusiness revolution -- wherever speed, high volume
traffic, explosive growth, and ultra high availability are critical
factors.
VAX systems have produced an enduring legacy, and the evolution
of computer technology has validated the core vision behind them.
"The VAX may be dead, but the principles
it embodied are being enshrined on the Web."
John Cox, editorial in NetworkWorldFusion |
Want to learn more?
For more information on the history of VAX systems, see
OpenVMS
at 20 Nothing Stops it, PDF
(2.5 MB) or PDF
in Zip file (2.0 MB)
|
