CDC CYBER 170 Consoles

[Toby Thain]

On 2020-07-15 1:51 a.m., Tom Hunter via cctalk wrote:
> I have been working on CDC CYBER 170 mainframes between 1977 and 1988. ...
> 
> For many years I have been trying to find one of these vector drawn CC545
> consoles to use with my emulator but I haven't been able to find one.
> Recently I decided to build a clone of it myself. Bitsavers has a hardware
> manual with schematics:
> 
> 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/cdc/cyber/cyber_170/62952600L_CYBER_170_Display_Station_CC545-CDEF_Hardware_Reference_26Mar1979.pdf
> 
> The CC545 console achieved unusually fast deflection with an
> electromagnetically deflected CRT. I am trying to understand the tricks
> they used to get these high speeds. Part of the magic is a dual-yoke which
> provided gross positioning within 2 microseconds to anywhere on the screen

Philco READ system (and probably others) did this as well.

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/philco/displays/READ_Theory_And_Operation_Feb65.pdf

--Toby


> using the first yoke (this is VERY fast) and then painted the character
> using a second yoke around that base position with 0.1 microsecond per
> stroke (this is VERY fast too). The two yokes work in an additive manner.
> ...
> Tom Hunter
>