The base system configuration consists of 3 parts, the system unit with the screen and system hardware, the LK250 keyboard, and the VAXmate mouse (VSXXX-AA).
The major components in the system unit are the Intel 80286 processor clocked at 8 MHz, 1 MB of DRAM, a 14-inch video monitor (amber or green monochrome) and controller (based on the Motorola 6845), 5.25" 1.2 MB floppy disk drive (RX33) and controller (behind the bezel at the right side of the screen), a thinwire (10Base2) ethernet controller, and the standard interfaces such as a keyboard, mouse, serial printer port and serial communications port.
Optionally you can install an Intel 80287 numeric coprocessor and a 2 MB DRAM module (a circuit board with 36 DRAM chips) in the system unit.
The expansion box contains an additional power supply, a battery, and a 20 or 40 MB hard disk drive and controller.

Standard  VAXmate  with  LK250  keyboard

The LK250 keyboard is specifically developed for the VAXmate. It has 105 keys with 3 different colors. "Gold"is for the DIGITAL applications, black is for standard LK250 functions, and blue is for IBM-compatible functions. Further, during the development of the VAXmate, DIGITAL also studied the customer's requirements for a printer. Although there was a printer under development for the VAXmate's market segment, a new design was chosen which became the LA75 Companion Printer. The LA75 can handle MS-DOS files and files from VMS. The LA75 is the first DIGITAL printer that uses the new DC423 serial interface. Later, the LA75 also became available with a parallel interface to enable a direct connection from an IBM (and compatibles) PC.