I am pretty sure the dates on soem of the schematics for my I2S image processor/display systems is 1979, but again those are not really terminals, they are peripherals for minicomputers that connect to the processor bus/ They are raster, they do suppot a colour monitor. When did Sigma Graphics make their first colour terminal? I would guess it was one of the early ones. What about a prestel set? I remember hearign about Prestel in 1977, althohgh I doubt terminals were commonly available at that point. Prestel terminals were colour, but only supportyed block graphics (6 pixels per character cell), so you might not class them as graphics terminals. -tony

On 3 Feb 2012 at 12:28, Richard wrote: ISC Intecolor 8001. 1977. --Chuck

It could be both. It originally came out as an intelligent color terminal. However ISC added a card cage and turned it into a CPM type computer. I seem to remember it used STD bus cards. And an external flat 8 inch floppy box. I had several go through my hands in the early 1990s. I think I even got an early trackball with one. Wished I had saved that one -- Paxton Hoag Astoria, OR USA

In article <4F2BCDA6.29699.A22B71 at cclist.sydex.com>, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes: OK, that's different than the compucolor I shown at old-computers.com and I'd say yeah that qualifies as a terminal because they're specficially marketing it as such and then including options to upgrade it to local processing, i.e. home computer. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

On 2/3/12 12:49 PM, Richard wrote: The 4027 is an architectural decedent of the ISC displays. Graphics are built up from programmable character glyphs. It was tough to build a raster graphics display because of the cost of frame buffer memory at the price that made sense in the terminal market in the 70's. Companies like Hazeltine built color graphics systems that were used in the process control market in the late 60's and early 70's, but they were VERY expensive. ISC Intecolor displays were used a lot in that market because they were inexpensive, and graphics didn't require high resolution. The ISC display monitor was quite clever at the time, too, with their electronic convergence system. Advanced Electronic Design (AED) built one of the first inexpensive frame buffer terminals around 1980, mainly driven by inexpensive 4116 DRAM and high speed integrated circuit D/A converters. So, there are some qualifiers, like all 'firsts'. Full frame buffer, or programmable character sets, for example.

In article <4F2D51A2.1260.15682DC at cclist.sydex.com>, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes: In that arena, the first commercial frame buffer is generally acknowledged to be the Evans & Sutherland frame buffer. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

In article <C9C36A4B-6956-4414-B389-0FF61E7B094A at cs.ubc.ca>, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> writes: Yeah, this isn't what I would call a terminal, but more typical of the graphics systems of the time: a peripheral you would attach to a mini. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>