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 n

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.