Gossip that DEC had decided that the VAX architecture was beginning to run out of steam and that it would have to move on to a new architecture over time was first reported here last May (CI No 688), and it is getting more insistent: the Prism RISC project (CI No 568) is seen as the foundation of the new architecture and on the software side, it is suggested that DEC is working on a new operating system for Prism code-named Emerald, that will include features of the Ultrix Unixalike as well as VMS, run VMS in a compatibility mode – rather better, one hopes, than the VAX ran PDP-11 code – and have a new native mode; the new family, expected to start to emerge around the turn of the decade, is expected to include 64-as well as 32-bit RISC processors; in May last year, January 1989 was seen as the target date for launch of the new family.
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