DEC was in the minicomputer and workstation businesses. It got squeezed to death between IBM at the high end and the upward expansion of the PC business at the low end.<p>A $25,000 MicroVAX was cheap and wonderful when it could replace a $250,000 mini, but not very attractive once a $2,500 PC-based server could do the same job.<p>DEC also had a bit of a NIH problem. For example, it did its own (expensive) PC, which wasn&#x27;t IBM PC-compatible. Later, it launched Windows NT machines based on its own 64-bit microprocessor, the DEC Alpha. Then it did its own version of the ARM chip, the StrongARM (which later reappeared as the Intel XScale before being sold on again).<p>DEC also lost its star software designer, Dave Cutler, the man behind DEC&#x27;s biggest success -- VAX VMS -- by cancelling his project. Bill Gates promptly hired him, and said he could bring whoever he wanted to Microsoft.<p>Cutler wrote Windows NT, which ultimately freed Microsoft from its huge problems with IBM and OS&#x2F;2, and provided a transition path from DOS-based Windows to a real OS.<p>For younger readers, the top workstation companies were DEC, Sun, HP, Apollo, Silicon Graphics etc. The top minicomputer companies were IBM, DEC, HP, Wang, Data General, Prime, Nixdorf, NCR etc. Not many survivors from that lot, but they were big and powerful at the time.