20 Apr
2006
20 Apr
'06
7:31 p.m.
A 1968 HP2116 with a HP12555 dual D/A board connected to a
Tektronics 611 storage tube.
But one of my 'best' old graphics systems is a 1969 Imlac PDS-1
'alpha' machine, currently playing 'SNARF' in the corner of my
living room.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 2:26 AM
Subject: Re: earliest graphics display system in your collection?
On 4/18/2006 at 10:45 PM Richard wrote:
OK, what's the earliest graphics display
system held by any of you
collectors?
"graphics display system" is anything that creates a graphics image
with a display: calligraphic, storage tube, plasma, raster, etc.
Block character graphics don't count (or I would include my Commodore
CBM 8032 and all the stupid terminals :).
Graphics displays are very old and I suspect that they go back to the very
early digital computer days in the form of a simple x-y vector display on
an oscilloscope. Analog computer use may go back even further. I suspect
that as a display technology, rather than as a printing technology,
graphics displays precede alphanumeric displays by a good long time.
Certainly pre-war process control systems could drive x-y chart
recorders--and what's a closed-loop process controller but an analog
computer?
Cheers,
Chuck