VAX

/vaks/ 1. 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 micro}s after about 1986, the

VAX was probably the hacker's favourite machine of them all,

especially after the 1982 release of {4.2BSD} {Unix}.

Especially noted for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly

{instruction set} - an asset that became a liability after the

{RISC} revolution.

2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain. Cited here

because its alleged 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 licencing

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 US

It is sometimes claimed that this slogan was ▫not▫ actually

used by the Vax vacuum-cleaner people, but was actually that

of a rival brand called Electrolux (as in "Nothing sucks

like..."). It has been reliably confirmed that Electrolux (a

Swedish company) actually did use this slogan in the late

1960s; it has apparently become a classic example (used in

textbooks) of the perils of not knowing the local idiom.

It appears, however, that the Vax people thought the slogan a

sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British hackers

report that their 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 as recently as 1992!

[{Jargon File}]

(1995-02-20)