Photocopy of letter to William H. Congleton of American Research and Development Corporation on April 22, 1957

Date: 1957-05-27

Pages: 3 p.

Credit Line: Gift Harlan Anderson

Accession: 102664470

Description: DEC was founded in 1957 by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson. They began by building small circuit modules for laboratory use and, in 1961, released their first computer, the PDP-1. During the 1960s, DEC produced a variety of machines, mainly aimed at the laboratory market, culminating in 1964 with the introduction of the PDP-8, often regarded as the first true minicomputer. In 1976, they moved into the high-end computing market with the VAX series of machine. In 1990 a series of late releases of a new disk storage system put financial pressure on the company and, despite releasing their powerful Alpha microprocessor, DEC struggled. It sold off various sections of the company and, in 1998, the firm itself was bought by Compaq which, in turn, was bought out by Hewlett-Packard in 2002.