Editing Dave Cutler (section)

==Digital Equipment Corporation (1971 to 1988)==
Cutler left DuPont to pursue his interest in computer systems, beginning with [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] in 1971. He worked at [[Assabet Woolen Mill|Digital's headquarters]] in [[Maynard, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story |title=Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story |date=30 November 1998 |last=Russinovich |first=Mark |publisher=Penton, USA |access-date=27 April 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170529061737/http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story |archive-date=29 May 2017}}</ref>

=== RSX-11M ===

{{Main|RSX-11}}

{{Expand section|date=June 2017}}

=== VMS ===

{{Main|OpenVMS}}

In April 1975, DEC began a hardware project, code-named '''Star''', to design a 32-bit virtual address extension to its [[PDP-11]]. In June 1975, Cutler, together with [[Dick Hustvedt]] and Peter Lipman, were appointed the technical project leaders for the software project, code-named '''Starlet''', to develop a totally new operating system for the Star family of processors. These two projects were tightly integrated from the beginning.

The three technical leaders of the Starlet project together with three technical leaders of the Star project formed the "Blue Ribbon Committee" at DEC that produced the fifth design evolution for the programs. The design featured simplifications to the memory management and process scheduling schemes of the earlier proposals and the architecture was accepted. The Star and Starlet projects culminated in the development of the [[VAX-11/780]] superminicomputer and the VAX/VMS operating system, respectively.

=== PRISM and MICA projects ===

{{Main|DEC PRISM|DEC MICA}}

DEC began working on a new CPU using [[reduced instruction set computer]] (RISC) design principles in 1986. Cutler, who was working in DEC's DECwest facility in Bellevue, Washington, was selected to head [[DEC PRISM|PRISM]], a project to develop the company's RISC machine. Its operating system, code named [[DEC MICA|MICA]], was to embody the next generation of design principles and have a compatibility layer for Unix and VMS. The RISC machine was to be based on [[emitter-coupled logic]] (ECL) technology, and was one of three ECL projects DEC was undertaking at the time.

Funding the research and development of multiple ECL projects yielding products that would ultimately compete against each other was a strain. Of the three ECL projects, the VAX 9000 was the only one that was directly commercialized. Primarily because of the early successes of the [[DECstation|PMAX]] advanced development project and the need for differing business models, PRISM was canceled in 1988 in favor of PMAX.

PRISM later surfaced as the basis of DEC's [[DEC Alpha|Alpha]] family of computer systems.<ref name="supnik-alpha">{{cite web |url=http://simh.trailing-edge.com/semi/ev4.html|title=EV-4 (1992)|date=2008-02-24}}</ref>

=== Attitude towards Unix ===
Cutler is known for his disdain for [[Unix]]. Said one team member who worked with Cutler:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zachary |first1=G. Pascal |title=Show-stopper! : the breakneck race to create Windows NT and the next generation at Microsoft |date=1994 |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |isbn=0029356717 |page=94 |url=https://archive.org/details/showstopperbreak00zach/page/94/mode/2up|url-access=registration}}</ref>
{{blockquote|
Unix is like Cutler's lifelong foe. It's like his [[Professor Moriarty|Moriarty]]. He thinks Unix is a junk operating program designed by a committee of PhDs. There's never been one mind behind the whole thing, and it shows. So he's always been out to get Unix. 
}}