PDP Programmed Data Processor In the '60s and '70s before it developed the VAX minicomputer, Digital Equipment Corporation sold and maintained several lines of minicomputers under the PDP label. The best-known families in the PDP line were the PDP-10 and PDP-11 (the latter of which was the direct predecessor of the VAX line). If anyone claims to have cut their teeth on a PDP-10, the correct response is to look suitably impressed.