Sun 1 and Framebuffer

Earl Baugh earl at baugh.org
Fri Dec 7 14:31:39 CST 2018


>
> On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 4:39 AM Liam Proven via cctalk <
> cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 at 12:44, Tony Duell <ard.p850ug1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I don't think anyone is questioning that it's a workstation, and that
> it
> > was made by Sun.
> > >
> > > I think the problem is over 'first' and that a Sun-2 is not going to be
> > the 'first' model.
> >
> > Ah! Excellent point. I have to admit, I was totally unfamiliar with
> > the very early Sun products. I was happy with my little ZX Spectrum
> > back then, and being about 14, wasn't paying much attention to the
> > world of academic Unix usage. :-)
> >
> > Looking up the SUN-1, I see that it lacked a graphics adapter, and was
> > a text-only machine. I didn't know that. That alone means that it's
> > not really what I think of when I think of a Sun workstation: no
> > windowing system means that for me it's not really a workstation.
>
> The Sun-1 absolutely had a framebuffer and a display and was not a
> text-only machine, it did 1024x800 at 1bpp, had a mouse, the whole deal.
>
> See the picture in this article, for example:
> https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sun-Microsystems-Inc


I can 100% confirm this.  I have a Sun 1/100 that runs just fine...and it
fires up Suntools with mouse and windows... Windowing pretty much the same
as any other
Sun running circa Sun OS 3.2    It came standard with B/W framebuffer.   I
also have the color framebuffer option (not currently installed... don't
have a monitor that
works with that)  The base system has a monitor that does what looks like
the standard Sun 1152x900 resolution (I've not confirmed that but sure
looks the same as my other early Suns...)

Earl


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