On Thu, Feb 1, 2018 at 10:19 AM, Mike Norris via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> The SuperTerm was manufactured by Intertec Data Systems c. 1978, it was a > 180 CPS dot matrix printer (RS232), quite often used as a console printer > in place of a LA36, I know it sounds snarky, and admittedly my sample size is small, but it seems to me that it was quite _rarely_ used as a console printer in place of a LA36. Of the DEC machine rooms I saw back in the day (DECsystem-10, PDP-11, VAX-11/7xx), most used an LA36 or LA120 as the console terminal, but I also saw one Teletype Model 43 and one VT52. (It was not good practice to use a CRT as the system console, IMO.) I saw Intertec Intertube CRT terminals and SuperBrain microcomputers a fair bit outside the machine rooms, but never saw a SuperTerm, though I'd seen advertising for it. Given that it cost slightly more than an LA120, if I'd had to make the choice, I'd have bought an LA120. Also typically DEC offered good deals on buying a complete system, at least for the sort of large systems you'd find in a machine room, so substituting another vendor's console terminal would cost more than just the delta in price between the DEC terminal and the other vendor's terminal. It's possible that some of the console terminals I saw could have had LA36 internal upgrades produced by Intertec or other companies. The only advantage was that an LA36 could be upgraded to higher speed. The various third-party graphics upgrades for the LA36 obviously weren't worthwhile for a console terminal except in so far as they included the speed upgrade. However, a scan of the SuperTerm maintenance manual definitely would be good to archive for posterity.
