In article <4B7A01C6.2000404 at bitsavers.org>,
Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> writes:
Raster updates are quite slow, it could be a graphics
terminal running
over a serial line (Ramtek, Chromerics, Raster Tech, Genesco, AED all
possibilities). Guess ing 640 x 480 x 8 resolution. [...
Yes, even in 1986 I would expect a memory mapped frame buffer to a VAX
to get updated faster than that. So that does point to a serial line
terminal. In the mid 80s, there were many people making these, but by
the end of the 80s serial terminals were almost dead. X terminals
revived the terminal concept for a while, but as PCs got cheaper and
cheaper it just made sense to give everybody their own dumb frame
buffer capable machine/workstation. In the 90s the 3D hardware
pipelines started becoming more affordable and of course the GPU
explosion in the "oughts" has just made silly amounts of processing
power available for very little money.
--
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