Don:
Are you sure that you are not the guy I have been looking for to take over
restoration of all of the 4000 Series products I have here? That part of Tek
history is in danger of being lost forever unless someone who knows that stuff is
willing to step forward and restore some of it for history and perhaps a museum .
. . I have several pieces that need a new, loving home . . .
Stan
w7ni@...
donlcramer@... wrote:
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Hi Dean,
I think the two color DVST came later (post 1976-77). When I first saw the
4081, it was green on green, as were the Battlestar Galactica shots (sorry,
don't have either the pilot movie or the series on tape to see). I can't
confirm which later Tek terminal models had the two color feature. I believe
they retrofited the color write-through to the 4081 workstation, but don't
remember if it become a 4082 or some such other product. A catalog from that
period should provide the answer. Either way, the stored image was always
green.
The write-through feature (mono or two color) was not present on the
older/more common DVST (direct view storage) displays as used on the 4051
desktop computer, or the 4010, 4012 et al (getty fuzzy on numbers again...)
dumb graphics terminals. With those you had to manually erase the screen at
some point--sort of like an etch-a-sketch. Or you couldn't see anything new
that was written as the screen filled up. Erase could happen under software
control also. The write-through enhancement answered the need to provide an
animation capability. Write-through with color was a further development; I
believe to provide better contrast between stored and non-stored images. I
don't know too much about that technology. I have the Pete Keller CRT
history book--I will see if mention is made of that technology in there. I
would assume it's discussed, though I haven't read the book entirely yet.
I was always fascinated by watching the DVST write. Modern high info content
displays are so boring by comparison--except perhaps color plasma. Of
course, I prefer vacuum tubes and steam engines also.
Speaking of display technologies for Wilsonville applications....
By around 1980, everything from Wilsonville seemed to be going to 19"
diagonals (CAD graphics). I remember the saying was in Display Research
(part of Tek Labs) that "Wilsonville wasn't interested in any new display
technology that couldn't be expanded to 19". I worked on the color shutter,
which wasn't so valuable on the bigger screens but was particularly suited to
small area, high resolution applications. It was a successful technology as
applied to the color TDS series digital scopes, some of which are still in
production. In the early 80's, a 1240 style logic analyzer was to use the
limited color version (red/green/yellow), but when it wasn't quite ready, the
product group had commissioned a clever two color CRT instead. The shutter
was also adapted to 3D displays, which spun out of Tek "kinda", but I don't
know much about that.
Matrix EL was another Tek developed display technology which would eventually
stretch to 19", though from Planar Systems years after we split off from Tek.
As far as I know, we are the only company to produce EL panels that large
(for DEC terminals, who sold them principally to the financial market, but at
a markup so large that volume never built up). That size was unusual
however, as our volume has, and remains, with panels smaller than 10.4"
diagonal.
Electon beam addressed EL (an "EL CRT") was also promising for it's high
resolution, but never made it to commercial application as far as I know. My
recollection was it never made it past 5" diagonal prior to my departure from
Tek in '83. I also helped complete a summer student's fascinating
"LED-o-scope" project, which involved a spinning mirror with a vertical array
of yellow LEDs. The LEDs scrolled out the image one vertical line at a time
as the mirror rotated. I believe there was also an additional short column of
red and green LEDs to show limited color capability. Definitely wasn't
scaleable to 19", but was a fun 6" (?) demo.
The CRT light valve (electron beam addressed LCD) was also an interesting Tek
Labs technology being pursued while I was there (at that time, monochrome).
Don't know where this went, but think of any LCD projector today and you'll
get the idea (though the latter use matrix LCDs, not electron beam addressed).
In the end, Wilsonville moved away from DVST to raster scan (as memory prices
tumbled), and so they stayed until the end.
Wups. Rambled once again.
Don
PS: I've enjoy your postings Dean. All very interesting!
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