Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), was founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957 in Maynard, Massachusetts. Operating under the trade name Digital, they were a major player in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although the company produced many product lines over their history, they are best known for their work in the minicomputer market starting in the mid-1960s. The company produced a series of machines known as the PDP line, with the PDP-8 and PDP-11 being among the most successful minis in history. Their success was only surpassed by another DEC product, the late-1970s VAX "supermini" systems that were designed to replace the PDP-11.