VAX
E183315
VAX is a line of 32-bit minicomputers and their associated architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation, widely used in the late 20th century for time-sharing and scientific computing.
All labels observed (14)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| VAX canonical | 11 |
| VAX architecture | 5 |
| VAX-11/780 | 2 |
| VAX 8600 | 1 |
| VAX 8800 | 1 |
| VAX computer architecture | 1 |
| VAX instruction set architecture | 1 |
| VAX minicomputers | 1 |
| VAX-11 | 1 |
| VAX-11/730 | 1 |
| VAX-11/750 | 1 |
| VAXserver | 1 |
| VAXstation | 1 |
| vax (historical) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1612015 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: VAX Context triple: [Unix, laterPlatform, VAX]
-
A.
Honeywell 316 minicomputer
The Honeywell 316 minicomputer was a small, 16-bit general-purpose computer from the late 1960s widely used in early networking and control applications.
-
B.
Honeywell DDP-516 minicomputer
The Honeywell DDP-516 minicomputer was a rugged, 16-bit computer from the 1960s widely used in real-time and military applications, notably serving as the hardware platform for the original ARPANET Interface Message Processors.
-
C.
VMS
VMS is a regional public transport association in the Chemnitz area of Germany that coordinates and manages integrated fares and services across multiple transit operators.
-
D.
Busicom
Busicom was a Japanese calculator and electronics company best known for commissioning the Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor.
-
E.
Osborne
Osborne is a surname of English origin borne by various notable individuals across history and contemporary culture.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: VAX Target entity description: VAX is a line of 32-bit minicomputers and their associated architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation, widely used in the late 20th century for time-sharing and scientific computing.
-
A.
Honeywell 316 minicomputer
The Honeywell 316 minicomputer was a small, 16-bit general-purpose computer from the late 1960s widely used in early networking and control applications.
-
B.
Honeywell DDP-516 minicomputer
The Honeywell DDP-516 minicomputer was a rugged, 16-bit computer from the 1960s widely used in real-time and military applications, notably serving as the hardware platform for the original ARPANET Interface Message Processors.
-
C.
VMS
VMS is a regional public transport association in the Chemnitz area of Germany that coordinates and manages integrated fares and services across multiple transit operators.
-
D.
Busicom
Busicom was a Japanese calculator and electronics company best known for commissioning the Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor.
-
E.
Osborne
Osborne is a surname of English origin borne by various notable individuals across history and contemporary culture.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
computer architecture
ⓘ
minicomputer line ⓘ |
| abbreviationOf | Virtual Address eXtension ⓘ |
| addressSpaceSize | 32-bit virtual address space ⓘ |
| architectureType | CISC ⓘ |
| compatibleWith |
PDP-11
ⓘ
surface form:
PDP-11 (at instruction-set level via compatibility mode)
|
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| declineReason |
competition from RISC systems
ⓘ
shift to 64-bit architectures ⓘ |
| designedFor |
business data processing
ⓘ
engineering computing ⓘ scientific computing ⓘ time-sharing ⓘ |
| developer | Digital Equipment Corporation ⓘ |
| firstModel |
VAX
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
VAX-11/780
|
| hasCompatibilityMode | PDP-11 compatibility mode ⓘ |
| hasModel |
MicroVAX
ⓘ
VAX self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
VAX 8600
VAX self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
VAX 8800
VAX self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
VAX-11/730
VAX self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
VAX-11/750
VAX self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
VAXserver
VAX self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
VAXstation
|
| influenced |
OpenVMS design
ⓘ
later CISC architectures ⓘ |
| instructionSetName |
VAX
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
VAX instruction set architecture
|
| introductionYear | 1977 ⓘ |
| manufacturer | Digital Equipment Corporation ⓘ |
| marketedAs | mainframe alternative ⓘ |
| marketSegment | minicomputer market ⓘ |
| notableFeature |
large number of instructions
ⓘ
orthogonal instruction set ⓘ rich addressing modes ⓘ |
| operatingSystem |
BSD
ⓘ
surface form:
BSD UNIX
VMS operating system ⓘ
surface form:
OpenVMS
UNIX variants ⓘ Ultrix ⓘ VMS ⓘ |
| popularPeriod |
1980s
ⓘ
early 1990s ⓘ late 1970s ⓘ |
| successorTo |
PDP-11
ⓘ
surface form:
PDP-11 family
|
| supports |
memory management unit
ⓘ
virtual address translation ⓘ virtual memory ⓘ |
| usedIn |
academic institutions
ⓘ
commercial enterprises ⓘ government organizations ⓘ research laboratories ⓘ |
| wordLength | 32-bit ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: VAX Description of subject: VAX is a line of 32-bit minicomputers and their associated architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation, widely used in the late 20th century for time-sharing and scientific computing.
Referenced by (29)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
VAX architecture
this entity surface form:
vax (historical)
this entity surface form:
VAX-11/780
this entity surface form:
VAX instruction set architecture
this entity surface form:
VAX architecture
this entity surface form:
VAX-11/780
this entity surface form:
VAX computer architecture
this entity surface form:
VAX architecture
subject surface form:
VT100
subject surface form:
Digital Equipment Corporation
this entity surface form:
VAX minicomputers
this entity surface form:
VAX architecture