VAX
/vaks/ n. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most succesful
minicomputer design in industry history, possibly excepting its
immediate ancestor, the PDP-11. Since it's inception in 1978, the
VAX has been the hacker's favorite machine of them all, especially
after the 1982 release of 4.2 BSD UNIX. Especially noted for its large,
programmer-freindly instruction set. A small, older VAX, such as a
MicroVAX 3300 (pedestal-style cabinet, about the same footprint as a workstation, pictured), typically has 600 megabytes of storage, 12 megabytes of
memory, built-in ethernet, tape drive, and SCSI, and makes an excellent
minicomputer for the hobbyist. Other models, such as the VAXStation
3100 (street value $200 bare) or the 4000 model 90 are more compact and can have have 32 to
128 megs or more of memory, SCSI, ethernet, Gigabytes of disk storage,
built-in high graphics, etc...
The preferred operating system is VMS, and a
UNIX admirer can always use the excellent POSIX user interface.