1. vax
1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful minicomputer
design in industry history, possibly excepting its immediate ancestor, the
PDP-11. Between its release in 1978 and its eclipse
by killer micros after about 1986, the VAX was
probably the hacker's favorite machine of them all, esp. after the 1982
release of 4.2 BSD Unix (see BSD). Especially noted
for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set — an
asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution.It is worth noting that the standard plural of VAX was
‘vaxen’ and that VAX system operators were sometimes referred
to as ‘vaxherds’ 2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain. Cited here because
its sales pitch, “Nothing sucks like a VAX!” became a sort of
battle-cry of RISC partisans. It is even sometimes claimed that DEC
actually entered a cross-licensing deal with the vacuum-Vax people that
allowed them to market VAX computers in the U.K. in return for not
challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in the U.S. A rival brand actually pioneered the slogan: its original form was
“Nothing sucks like Electrolux”. It has apparently become a
classic example (used in advertising textbooks) of the perils of not
knowing the local idiom. But in 1996, the press manager of Electrolux AB,
while confirming that the company used this slogan in the late 1960s, also
tells us that their marketing people were fully aware of the possible
double entendre and intended it to gain attention. And gain attention it did — the VAX-vacuum-cleaner people
thought the slogan a sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British
hackers report that VAX's promotions used it in 1986--1987, and we have one
report from a New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in TV
ads for the product in 1992.
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Definitions of vax
