4 ms·

I don't know about the 730, but the 780 had a PDP-11 (/03 I think?) in the cabinet which was in charge of the system console, and bootstrapping the VAX processo

• Sanddancer 12y ago
  That's actually pretty common in larger systems. You don't want your big, expensive machine bogged down with all the simple, stupid housekeeping stuff, so most big iron machines have a frontend processor of some sort to handle that. The DECs used a PDP/11 or an Intel 8080, depending on model, IBM tended to use PCs or Thinkpads running special versions of OS/2, etc.
  • ams6110 12y ago
    Even a modern mainframe such as a Cray requires a management computer to get it started. In this case of a Cray today it's a generic PC.
• kjs3 12y ago
  The 780 was the first of the line of DEC 32-bit minicomputers. Of course it had a front end processor to manage bringing it on line; IBMs always had this and newer generations of Intel processors have and adjunct processors to do similar things. The 730 was the lowest end of the line, designed for folks who couldn't afford a full 780 (or 750, software developers often). It's often cited as the slowest real 32-bit production machine.