In article <01C73A84.F9BCC2E0 at MAGGIE>, Steve Robertson <steerex at mindspring.com> writes: Heh heh. HP made the 264x series of terminals in the 1970s. They look like this: <http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=240>. The 2645A is character only; the 2648A includes graphics. The system chassis is basically a microcomputer: a backplane into which a bunch of cards are fitted. Most of the major "chunks" of the architecture are implemented as multi-board sets with an additional frontplane connector that provided the board set with its own private communication path. Most models had a cartridge tape drive mounted in the cabinet so that you could have local storage of data and programs through the terminal. The microprocessor in the terminal is an 8080 or 8088. Its kinda funny how we recently talked about terminal hacks that hijacked a terminal to turn it into a microcomputer system. The 264x series from HP is an example of where a manufacturer did this intentionally to their own terminal design in order to create a family of terminals with functional variations all using the same chassis and reusing most of the electronics through the board sets. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>