27 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
27 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>VAX</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../V.html" title="V"/><link rel="previous" href="vaston.html" title="vaston"/><link rel="next" href="VAXen.html" title="VAXen"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">VAX</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="vaston.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">V</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="VAXen.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="VAX"/><dt xmlns="" id="VAX"><b>VAX</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/vaks/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful minicomputer
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design in industry history, possibly excepting its immediate ancestor, the
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<a href="../P/PDP-11.html"><i class="glossterm">PDP-11</i></a>. Between its release in 1978 and its eclipse
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by <a href="../K/killer-micro.html"><i class="glossterm">killer micro</i></a>s after about 1986, the VAX was
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probably the hacker's favorite machine of them all, esp. after the 1982
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release of 4.2 BSD Unix (see <a href="../B/BSD.html"><i class="glossterm">BSD</i></a>). Especially noted
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for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set — an
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asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution.</p><p>It is worth noting that the standard plural of VAX was
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‘vaxen’ and that VAX system operators were sometimes referred
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to as ‘vaxherds’</p></dd><dd><p> 2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain. Cited here because
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its sales pitch, “<span class="quote">Nothing sucks like a VAX!</span>” became a sort of
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battle-cry of RISC partisans. It is even sometimes claimed that DEC
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actually entered a cross-licensing deal with the vacuum-Vax people that
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allowed them to market VAX computers in the U.K. in return for not
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challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in the U.S.</p><p>A rival brand actually pioneered the slogan: its original form was
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“<span class="quote">Nothing sucks like Electrolux</span>”. It has apparently become a
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classic example (used in advertising textbooks) of the perils of not
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knowing the local idiom. But in 1996, the press manager of Electrolux AB,
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while confirming that the company used this slogan in the late 1960s, also
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tells us that their marketing people were fully aware of the possible
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double entendre and intended it to gain attention.</p><p>And gain attention it did — the VAX-vacuum-cleaner people
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thought the slogan a sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British
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hackers report that VAX's promotions used it in 1986--1987, and we have one
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report from a New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in TV
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ads for the product in 1992.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="vaston.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../V.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="VAXen.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">vaston </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> VAXen</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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