Basis of Presentation Basis of Presentation (Policies)	9 Months Ended
Basis of Presentation Basis of Presentation (Policies)	Sep. 30, 2013
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Nature of Operations [Policy Text Block]	Company EMC Corporation (“EMC”) and its subsidiaries develop, deliver and support the Information Technology (“IT”) industry’s broadest range of information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure technologies, solutions and services. EMC’s Information Infrastructure business provides a foundation for organizations to store, manage, protect, analyze and secure their vast and ever-increasing quantities of information, improve business agility, lower cost of ownership and enhance their competitive advantage within traditional data centers, virtual data centers and cloud-based IT infrastructures. EMC’s Information Infrastructure business comprises three segments – Information Storage, RSA Information Security and Information Intelligence Group. EMC's GoPivotal, Inc. ("Pivotal") business was formed in the second quarter of 2013. Pivotal unites strategic technology, people and programs from EMC and VMware, Inc. ("VMware"), including Greenplum, Cloud Foundry, Spring, Cetas, Pivotal Labs, GemFire and other products from the VMware vFabric Suite. Pivotal is building a new platform comprising next-generation data fabrics, application fabrics and a cloud independent platform-as-a-service ("PaaS"). EMC’s VMware Virtual Infrastructure business, which is represented by EMC’s majority equity stake in VMware, is the leader in virtualization infrastructure solutions utilized by organizations to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume IT resources. VMware’s virtualization infrastructure solutions, which include a suite of products designed to deliver a software-defined data center, run on industry-standard desktop computers and servers and support a wide range of operating system and application environments, as well as networking and storage infrastructures.
General	General The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements are unaudited and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information. These consolidated financial statements include the accounts of EMC, its wholly owned subsidiaries, as well as Pivotal and VMware, companies majority-owned by EMC. All intercompany transactions have been eliminated. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in our annual consolidated financial statements have been condensed or omitted. Accordingly, these interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2012 which are contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2013. The results of operations for the interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations to be expected for any future period or the entire fiscal year. The interim consolidated financial statements, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments necessary to fairly state the results as of and for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2013 and 2012.
Net Income Per Share	Net Income Per Share Basic net income per weighted average share has been computed using the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Diluted net income per weighted average share is computed using the weighted average number of common and dilutive common equivalent shares outstanding during the period. Common equivalent shares consist of stock options, restricted stock and restricted stock units, our $1.725 billion 1.75% convertible senior notes due 2013 ("2013 Notes") and associated warrants. Additionally, for purposes of calculating diluted net income per weighted average share, net income is adjusted for the difference between VMware’s reported diluted and basic net income per weighted average share, if any, multiplied by the number of shares of VMware held by EMC.
Adjustments for Immaterial Prior Period Accounting Error	Reclassifications Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to conform with the current year's presentation. During the second quarter of 2013, EMC and VMware combined certain operations to form Pivotal, with a cash investment from General Electric Company ("GE"). Pivotal is considered a separate reportable segment. We recast the segment disclosures for the prior financial reporting periods to separately present the operations of the Pivotal segment. None of the segment reclassifications impact EMC's previously reported consolidated financial statements. See Note 15 for further discussion of the segment reclassifications.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements	Recent Accounting Pronouncements In July 2013, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued new accounting guidance on the presentation of unrecognized tax benefits. This new guidance requires an entity to present an unrecognized tax benefit, or a portion of an unrecognized tax benefit, as a reduction to a deferred tax asset when a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss or a tax credit carryforward exists, with limited exceptions. This new guidance is effective for the periods beginning after December 15, 2013, and should be applied prospectively with retroactive application permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance, and do not expect it to have a material impact on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows. In March 2013, the FASB issued guidance that requires a parent company to release any related cumulative translation adjustment into net income only if the sale or transfer results in the complete or substantially complete liquidation of the foreign entity in which the subsidiary or group of assets had resided. This new guidance is effective beginning after December 15, 2013. We do not anticipate that the adoption of this new guidance will have a material impact on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Disclosure of accounting policy for computing basic and diluted earnings or loss per share for each class of common stock and participating security. Addresses all significant policy factors, including any antidilutive items that have been excluded from the computation and takes into account stock dividends, splits and reverse splits that occur after the balance sheet date of the latest reporting period but before the issuance of the financial statements.

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