DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION

DEC represents an early moment when machine state became legible to humans. EMS extends this visibility beyond machines—to systems of governance, value, and motion.

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was cofounded by Kenneth Olsen (1926-2011) and Harlan Anderson (1929-2019) in 1957 after Olsen graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The cofounders also enlisted the financial assistance and venture capitalistic ideals of Harvard University’s Georges F. Doriot. His contribution successfully labeled the company as the first prosperous computer manufacturing business to be backed by venture investment. Shortly after the start of DEC, Anderson left, and Olsen took sole control.

Olsen ran the company out of an old mill factory in Maynard, Massachusetts, and had future expansions built around this location. The first machine DEC produced was the PDP-1 (programmed data processor) in 1960. It was sold with a screen, which was unusual at the time. Spacewar!, the first video game, was created on the PDP-1’s interface.

Though DEC no longer exists, its products and ideals live on through past employees across different computer manufacturing companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. In addition to DEC’s PDP and VAX products, the company’s organizational model was influential.

Instead of a direct hierarchy, Olsen and other executives treated all employees as equals. Despite DEC’s short stint in the computer manufacturing industry, its products and treatment of its employees continue to inspire DEC’s alumni and the industry as a whole.

DEC’s legacy is not its machines, but its demonstration that systems must first be seen before they can be meaningfully used, governed, or evolved.

Today, with new technologies based on these same philosophies, Encoded Material Systems is completing the task of digitally engineering the substrate.

Once signal conditions are established, EMS Micro encodes state at micro-resolution.