Prism and Mica Projects
Digital began working on a new CPU using RISC design principles in 1986 and Cutler, who was then working in DEC's DECWest facility in Bellevue, Washington, was selected to head Prism, a project to develop the company’s RISC machine. Its operating system, code named 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 ECL technology, and was one of three ECL projects Digital was undertaking at the time.
Funding the R&D costs 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 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 Alpha family of computer systems.
Read more about this topic: Dave Cutler
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