The PDP-11 was a highly successful series of 16-bit minicomputers developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 onwards. It featured an innovative Unibus architecture, which allowed all components to communicate via a single, unified bus. Its versatile instruction set and modular design contributed to its widespread use in scientific, engineering, and commercial applications, and it was particularly influential in the development and popularization of the Unix operating system. The series spanned a wide range of models, from compact LSI-11 microcomputers to powerful systems.