Computer History Lecture: January 13, 2000

The Computer Museum History Center is delighted to present: "Recollections of Early Paint Systems" Richard Shoup & Alvy Ray Smith January 13, 2000 18:00 hrs Building 3 (Moffett Training and Conference Center) NASA Ames Research Center Mountain View, CA 94035 In the early 1970s, with the advent of 1 Kbit integrated circuit memories, it became practical for the first time to build a semiconductor memory capable of holding an entire image and displaying it on a video monitor -- a picture memory or "frame buffer." This led to developments in interactive frame buffers, painting and drawing programs and other graphics-oriented software at Xerox PARC, the University of Utah, MIT, the NYIT, and elsewhere, and ultimately to the entire field of pixel-based graphics. Dick Shoup built the first video-compatible frame buffer and painting system, "SuperPaint," at Xerox PARC in 1973. His colleague and friend Alvy Ray Smith collaborated on SuperPaint, and then went on to develop the first full-color paint program and much more at New York Tech in the late 1970s. In this talk, Dick and Alvy will describe and demonstrate -- hardware gods willing --the original 1973 SuperPaint graphics system, and a Windows-based PC emulation of the NYIT full-color Paint3 program, exhibit historical footage of early graphics programs and achievements, and tell some stories of their early adventures in pixel graphics. Following the lecture, tours of The Computer Museum History Center's Exhibit Area will be conducted by Center staff. Refreshments will be served and admission is free. Attending: Please RSVP by January 12 to Wendy-Ann Francis. (francis(a)computerhistory.org) Due to government regulations, all lecture attendees must register to be admitted to NASA Ames Research Center. If you are a U.S. citizen or Green Card holder, please provide your full name and affiliation. If you are not a US citizen and do not have a Green Card, please provide your full name, affiliation, citizenship, VISA type and expiration date, passport number and expiration date, date of birth, and country of birth. We look forward to seeing you on the 13th! This announcement, along with, reference materials, links, photographs and directions to the event, appears on our website at: http://www.computerhistory.org/events/superpaint_01132000/ D.S. -- Dag Spicer Curator & Manager of Historical Collections Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing The Computer Museum History Center Building T12-A NASA Ames Research Center Mountain View, CA 94035 Offices: Building T12-A Exhibit Area: Building 126 Tel: +1 650 604 2578 Fax: +1 650 604 2594 E-m: spicer(a)computerhistory.org WWW: http://www.computerhistory.org <spicer(a)tcm.org> PGP: 15E31235 (E6ECDF74 349D1667 260759AD 7D04C178) S/V T12 Read about the latest History Center developments in "CORE," our quarterly on-line newsletter: http://www.computerhistory.org/events/core/1.1/