dec
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
Dec
n 1: the last (12th) month of the year [syn: {December}, {Dec}]
2: (astronomy) the angular distance of a celestial body north or
to the south of the celestial equator; expressed in degrees;
used with right ascension to specify positions on the
celestial sphere [syn: {declination}, {celestial latitude},
{dec}]
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
DEC
/dek/, n.
n. Commonly used abbreviation for Digital Equipment Corporation, later
deprecated by DEC itself in favor of "Digital" and now entirely
obsolete following the buyout by Compaq. Before the {killer micro}
revolution of the late 1980s, hackerdom was closely symbiotic with
DEC's pioneering timesharing machines. The first of the group of
cultures described by this lexicon nucleated around the PDP-1 (see
{TMRC}). Subsequently, the PDP-6, {PDP-10}, {PDP-20}, {PDP-11} and
{VAX} were all foci of large and important hackerdoms, and DEC
machines long dominated the ARPANET and Internet machine population.
DEC was the technological leader of the minicomputer era (roughly 1967
to 1987), but its failure to embrace microcomputers and Unix early
cost it heavily in profits and prestige after {silicon} got cheap.
Nevertheless, the microprocessor design tradition owes a major debt to
the {PDP-11} instruction set, and every one of the major
general-purpose microcomputer OSs so far (CP/M, MS-DOS, Unix, OS/2,
Windows NT) was either genetically descended from a DEC OS, or
incubated on DEC hardware, or both. Accordingly, DEC was for many
years still regarded with a certain wry affection even among many
hackers too young to have grown up on DEC machines.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Digital Equipment Corporation
DEC
<company> (DEC) A computer manufacturer and software vendor.
Before the {killer micro} revolution of the late 1980s,
hackerdom was closely symbiotic with DEC's pioneering
{time-sharing} machines. The first of the group of hacker
cultures nucleated around the {PDP-1} (see {TMRC}).
Subsequently, the {PDP-6}, {PDP-10}, {PDP-20}, {PDP-11} and
{VAX} were all foci of large and important hackerdoms, and DEC
machines long dominated the {ARPANET} and {Internet} machine
population.
The first PC from DEC was a {CP/M} computer called {Rainbow},
announced in 1981-82.
DEC was the technological leader of the minicomputer era
(roughly 1967 to 1987), but its failure to embrace
{microcomputers} and {Unix} early cost it heavily in profits
and prestige after {silicon} got cheap. However, the
{microprocessor} design tradition owes a heavy debt to the
{PDP-11} {instruction set}, and every one of the major
general-purpose microcomputer {operating systems} so far
(CP/M, {MS-DOS}, {Unix}, {OS/2}) were either genetically
descended from a DEC OS, or incubated on DEC {hardware} or
both. Accordingly, DEC is still regarded with a certain wry
affection even among many hackers too young to have grown up
on DEC machines. The contrast with {IBM} is instructive.
Quarterly sales $3923M, profits -$1746M (Aug 1994).
DEC was taken over by {Compaq Computer Corporation} in 1998.
(http://digital.com/.html).
(1999-06-03)
[email protected]