---
created_at: '2015-12-06T14:55:22.000Z'
title: What a DEC-20 Cost in 1976 (2007)
url: http://dec20.blogspot.com/2007/11/heres-what-dec-20-cost-in-1976.html
author: cpach
points: 53
story_text: 
comment_text: 
num_comments: 40
story_id: 
story_title: 
story_url: 
parent_id: 
created_at_i: 1449413722
_tags:
- story
- author_cpach
- story_10685373
objectID: '10685373'

---
[Source](http://dec20.blogspot.com/2007/11/heres-what-dec-20-cost-in-1976.html "Permalink to Computer History: Here's what a DEC-20 Cost in 1976")

# Computer History: Here's what a DEC-20 Cost in 1976

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#  [ Computer History ][3]

## Tuesday, November 20, 2007

###  Here's what a DEC-20 Cost in 1976 

Here are 4 pages from DEC proposal for an early model 2040 that when delivered turned out to be system serial number 2249 (of fond core memory), largely as described in the quote. Over the years it got upgraded to a max 2065 on a CI with another 2065 and three other 2065s at another site.   
  
This blog is set up for anonymous comments. Lets see how that works.  
  
Enjoy.  
  
Click on an image to see a larger version.   
  
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Posted by  [ Al ][8] at  [8:51 AM][9] [ ![][10] ][11]

#### 11 comments:

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CresceNet said... 
:  This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

:  [ November 20, 2007 at 2:49 PM ][13] [ ![][14] ][15]

![][16][ ][17]

[Al][17] said... 
: 

Look at the monthly maintanence cost of an RP04 disk drive (100MB); $215. Today that would get us a half terrabyte that was faster and more reliable. I suspect that the electric bill would buy for a 40GB disk each month. 

:  [ November 20, 2007 at 5:58 PM ][18] [ ![][14] ][19]

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Carl said... 
: 

Notice the "software" cost doesn't include the operating system. I guess that was a freebie. 

:  [ November 22, 2007 at 9:22 AM ][21] [ ![][14] ][22]

![][23][ ][24]

[steve][24] said... 
: 

Fascinating, as someone who wasn't even born in 1976 but works in computing, I think the thing that surprises me most is the cost of the printer! 

:  [ November 22, 2007 at 3:54 PM ][25] [ ![][14] ][26]

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Anonymous said... 
: 

And my starting salary in 1976 was 13k. 

:  [ May 4, 2015 at 10:34 AM ][28] [ ![][14] ][29]

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Anonymous said... 
: 

Thanks for this, it's fun to read! I have a roughly 10-year later version for a MicroVAX that I used for some years until the company abandoned it in the mid 1990s and I still have it at home... might power it up some day, or convert it to a bar... 

:  [ May 10, 2015 at 10:08 PM ][30] [ ![][14] ][31]

![][32][ ![][33]][34]

[Charles Haynes][34] said... 
: 

$397,806 in 1976 would be $1,662,570.40 in 2015. 

:  [ June 30, 2015 at 5:53 PM ][35] [ ![][14] ][36]

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Anonymous said... 
: 

IBM charges that much money every YEAR to lease a 1U blade server. 

:  [ December 6, 2015 at 9:12 AM ][37] [ ![][14] ][38]

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[Alan Groupe][41] said... 
: 

@steve And it didn't even have lower case letters. 

:  [ December 6, 2015 at 4:01 PM ][42] [ ![][14] ][43]

![][44][ ][45]

[Bill Silva][45] said... 
: 

Ah yes the days when men-were-men and computers were sold by the pound! In 1981 I sold a 1 GB StorageTek disk drive and controller (included an IBM selector channel)for a cool $250,000 for a DecSysytem 2040 to Ziff Davis Publishing in Burlington Massachusetts. Digital's LCG group was very profitable and was always in the crosshairs of Gordon Bell et al in favor of VAX - You could buy an entire DEC System 2020 for the same price as the disk mentioned above 

:  [ December 6, 2015 at 9:26 PM ][46] [ ![][14] ][47]

![][27]

Anonymous said... 
: 

The VT-52A CRT Terminal ($2095) was cheaper than the LA-36C DECWriter II Hard-copy Terminal ($2350).   
  
CRTs were then going strong for the next 30 years (the 2005 eMac was the last mainstream CRT computer, in my opinion). 

:  [ December 6, 2015 at 10:11 PM ][48] [ ![][14] ][49]

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  [*[8:51 AM]: 2007-11-20T08:51:00-08:00

