17 Dec
2004
17 Dec
'04
1:05 p.m.
Ashley Carder asks:
Does anyone know what the oldest documented functional
computer is that is
connected to the internet?
I often (but not continuously) have a DEC GT40 hooked up to terminal
server allowing me to telnet into and out of it. Normally I load programs
such as the Moonlander game by telnetting to my Linux server, logging in,
and typing a "cat lunar.gt" command.
The GT40 is a vector graphics terminal based on a PDP-11/05, 8K words of
core memory, a VT11 vector graphics controller and a VR14 vector monitor.
They were introduced in 1972.
The GT40 has a small boot PROM containing a very simplistic terminal
emulator which recognizes a special character sequence to initiate a
base-64 program download, so logging into a timesharing system was the
most common way to load programs.
Eric