Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) — 10 prefixes (MA-L)

A MAC address beginning with one of Digital Equipment Corporation's ten registered OUI prefixes identifies hardware built by DEC, the defunct minicomputer and networking pioneer remembered for the VAX and PDP-11 systems, DECnet, and early Ethernet adapters like the DEQNA/DELQA.

DEC was one of the dominant minicomputer and workstation vendors of the 1970s–1990s, and it co-developed the original Ethernet standard alongside Xerox and Intel. Its hardware line spanned the PDP-11, VAX, and later Alpha systems, tied together on local networks by the proprietary DECnet protocol suite.

Most of the ten blocks — 08:00:2B, 00:00:F8, 00:01:FE, 00:10:FE, and 00:60:6D — are conventional burned-in hardware prefixes, seen on Q-bus Ethernet adapters such as the DEQNA and its successor the DELQA, plus later Alpha-era network interfaces.

The AA-00-00 through AA-00-04 block is different: DECnet Phase IV reserved it for dynamically constructed MAC addresses, built by the protocol stack at runtime from a station's DECnet address rather than assigned per device at the factory.

DEC no longer exists as an independent company. Compaq acquired it in 1998 for roughly $9.6 billion, then the largest technology acquisition to date, and Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq in 2002. There is no live DEC corporate site to cite.

Seeing one of these prefixes on a network today almost certainly points to vintage or retrocomputing hardware, an emulator such as SIMH reproducing a VAX or PDP-11 environment, or a locally administered address spoofing legacy gear — no dedicated security advisory ties these OUIs to any known abuse.

IEEE assignment

10 prefixes → Digital Equipment Corporation, registered Littleton, MA, US [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI); 10 confirmed blocks: 08-00-2B, 00-00-F8, 00-01-FE, 00-10-FE, 00-60-6D, AA-00-00, AA-00-01, AA-00-02, AA-00-03, AA-00-04 [Confirmed] — local IEEE MA-L registry snapshot

HQ / registered address

LKG 1-2/A19, Littleton, MA 01460-1289, US (most blocks); 301 Rockrimmon Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO for 00-10-FE and 00-01-FE [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L

Company status

defunct — acquired by Compaq Computer Corp in 1998 (~$9.6B, then the largest tech acquisition); Compaq acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2002; no live DEC corporate website [Confirmed] — Wikipedia, SEC EDGAR filing

Device types

VAX and PDP-11 minicomputers, Alpha workstations/servers, DEQNA/DELQA Q-bus Ethernet adapters [Confirmed] — gunkies.org, Computer History Museum

Special block

AA-00-00 through AA-00-04 reserved for DECnet Phase IV's dynamic MAC-addressing scheme (protocol-constructed, not burned-in hardware) [Confirmed] — Cisco DECnet configuration guide, Wikipedia (DECnet)

Verified sample prefixes (MA-L, DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION)

08:00:2B, 00:60:6D [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L registry

Notable products

VAX, PDP-11, DECnet, DEQNA/DELQA Ethernet adapters [Confirmed] — computerhistory.org

Security/inventory relevance

no dedicated advisory found tying these OUIs to abuse; modern occurrence is inferred to indicate vintage/retrocomputing hardware, emulation, or a spoofed/locally-administered address [Likely] — inference from registry + hardware timeline, no dedicated security source

Related vendors

Compaq Computer Corporation (acquirer, 1998); Hewlett-Packard (successor via Compaq, 2002) [Confirmed] — Wikipedia

Dates

no IEEE assignment/registration date exists for any of the 10 blocks (IEEE's public MA-L data does not publish one); not fabricated [Confirmed] — IEEE the IEEE MA-L registry column set

Analyst note

a DEC OUI prefix almost never represents live production hardware today; treat it as a strong vintage/retrocomputing or emulation signal rather than an active asset.