Acronym for virtual address extension. A family of 32-bit minicomputers introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1978. The VAX, like the later 68000 microprocessor, has a flat address space and a large instruction set. The VAX was highly favored within the hacker community but has been superseded by microprocessors and RISC workstations. See also flat address space, instruction set, microprocessor, minicomputer, RISC.