30 Aug
2023
30 Aug
'23
9:02 p.m.
On Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 1:52 PM Mike Katz via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I had a video board and keyboard on my Gimix SS-50
system.
Why?
1. The video board/monitor is much faster than a terminal even at
115,200 baud.
115,200 in the S100 era was also rare. It was usually 9600 or 19200 at the
top end.
2. A Video board, keyboard and monitor was way
cheaper back then than a
terminal (Yes there was the SWTPc CT64 and the Lear Siegler ADM-3A kits,
but fully loaded they weren't all that cheap).
3. If the video board supports any kind of graphics that is another
reason. The Gimix video board supported graphics with a RAM character
generator.
4. It's a lot less code to directly splat characters into memory than to
generate
all the escape sequences you need to 'draw' anything interesting (be it a
game,
a graph or just an emacs buffer).
I got into this just after the S100 era, and I opted for the Rainbow
because it
was both a terminal I could connect to other systems, and a system with an
internal graphics card. The terminal had completed the move inside the
computer
after starting out life as a computer added onto the terminal. DECs
terminals
followed this path. Many of the S100 systems that had graphics cards were
also
chasing after newish workstations that were just starting to be built.
Warner
On 8/30/2023 2:38 PM, W2HX via cctalk wrote:
Hi all,
I recently acquired an S-100 computer, and it came with a video card and
a keyboard (3rd party products, not originally equipped with these). I am
trying to figure out the benefits of having a video card and keyboard vs
just using a serial port and terminal. Certainly if the video card
supported graphics, that would be a reason to go that route over a
terminal. As for the keyboard, ok-maybe you need specific keys for a
specific application. But I don't understand the video monitor. I could
understand maybe if there was an RF modulator so that you could use a
standard TV. That would save the builder some money. But this computer just
provides composite.
Other than graphics (and maybe some special function keys for an
application on a keyboard), why would an S-100 builder in those days opt to
buy a video card instead of a terminal?
Thanks for the bandwidth.
73 Eugene W2HX
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