The VAX 7000 and VAX 10000 are a discontinued family of high-end

multiprocessor Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There ar ...

minicomputers developed and manufactured by

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...

(DEC), introduced in July 1992. These systems use

NVAX The NVAX is a CMOS microprocessor developed and produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that implemented the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). A variant of the NVAX, the NVAX+, differed in the bus interface and external cache suppor ...

microprocessors implementing the

VAX VAX (an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The V ...

instruction set architecture, and run the OpenVMS

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

. They were designed in parallel with the DEC 7000 AXP and DEC 10000 AXP

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

computers, and were identical except for the CPU modules used and the supported I/O bus interfaces. Digital intended customers of the VAX 7000/10000 to eventually upgrade to the Alpha-based configuration, the AXPs, by simply swapping the VAX-based CPU module(s) for those based on the Alpha.

Models

VAX 7000

There were three models of the VAX 7000. Model 6x0 The Model 6x0, code-named "''Laser/Neon''", was announced on 7 July 1992 in Zurich, Switzerland with the United States announcement on 15 July. It supported one to four 90.91 MHz (11 ns cycle time) NVAX+ microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 4. Model 7x0 The Model 7x0, code-named "''Laser/Krypton''", was introduced in August 1994. It supported one to six 137.5 MHz NV5 (also known as NVAX++) microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 6. Model 8x0 The Model 8x0, code-named "''Laser/Krypton+''", supported one to six 170.9 MHz NV5 microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 6.

VAX 10000

The VAX 10000 was essentially a larger configuration of the VAX 7000. Both shared the same System Cabinet, but the VAX 10000 was configured as standard with one Expander Cabinet housing storage devices, and one Battery Cabinet housing an uninterruptible power supply. These were optional for a VAX 7000 system. There was one model of the VAX 10000, the Model 6x0. Code-named "''Blazer/Neon''", it supported one to four 90.91 MHz (11 ns) NVAX+ microprocessors, with the value of "x" being 1 to 4.

CPU module

The initial Model 600 used the KA7AA CPU module, which contained a 90.91 MHz (11 ns cycle time) NVAX+

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

with 4 MB of B-cache (

L2 cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, whic ...

). Later, the clock frequency of microprocessor featured was increased. The Model 700 used the KA7AB CPU module containing a 133.33 MHz (7.5 ns cycle time) NVAX++, and the Model 800 used the KA7AC CPU module featuring a 170.9 MHz NVAX++. The CPU modules had two LEVI

gate array A gate array is an approach to the design and manufacture of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) using a prefabricated chip with components that are later interconnected into logic devices (e.g. NAND gates, flip-flops, etc.) according ...

s which interfaced the microprocessor to the ''Laser System Bus'', the system bus.

Memory

The VAX 7000/10000 supported a maximum of 3.5 GB of memory. This was a limitation of the VAX architecture, which had 32-bit addressing.

References

* Rifkin, Glenn (7 July 1992)
"Digital Has New Models Of Computer"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''.
"DEC RUSHES TO RESCUE OF VAX USERS WITH FOUR NEW MODELS"
(23 August 1994). ''Computer Business Review''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vax 7000 10000 DEC minicomputers Computer-related introductions in 1992 32-bit computers