On 2018-06-06 2:08 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Jun 6, 2018, at 9:48 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi, I'm hoping someone here knows the low-level nitty-gritty on how the
>> characters on the CDC 6600 console CRTs were generated.
>>
>> Thornton, "Design of a Computer", says "Control of the beam .. is provided by
>> electrostatic deflection ... electronically converting from the symbol .. to
>> deflection voltages", but alas, doesn't say how that conversion is done. And 
>> I
>> looked in some CDC 6600 documentation online, alas, even less detail.
>>
>> But looking at the characters (reproduced on the dust jacket), the curves 
>> sure
>> make it look like it wasn't anything simple (e.g. using display vectors, as
>> one source indicated). Does anyone know?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> It is indeed a digital stroke generator, not a Fourier generator as someone 
> suggested.  The reason for the odd shapes on the Thornton book cover is the 
> AC characteristics of the display electronics.
> 
The tweet did, but I found the suggestion surprising.

> There are a couple of parts to the puzzle.
> 
> One is the display controller ("synchronizer" in CDC terminology, the module 
> that connects to the 6000 I/O channel).  The 60125000 manual that was 
> mentioned is the "block diagrams" manual for that (and several other) 
> controllers.  The block diagrams show the overall data flow and the general 
> structure of the circuits, but they are not complete schematics.
> 
> However, the full schematics also exist: 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/cdc/cyber/cyber_70/fieldEngr/63016700A_6600_Chassis_Tabs_12_Apr65.pdf
> 
> The block diagram manual shows the waveforms generated by the controller.  As 
> you can see, they are pretty angular and straight lined.  Each segment 
> (between the small marks on the stroke) corresponds to a 100 ms clock cycle, 
> with a one or two element step in X and/or Y.

That must be closer to 100 ns? Typo?

> 
> Incidentally, the 170 series display controller produces the same waveforms, 
> though using a completely different (ROM based) design.  
> 
> The other part of the puzzle is the DD60 console display.  That is fed from 
> the 6602/6612 display controller by a bundle of coax cables.  The waveforms 
> are generated by A/D circuits (quite primitive ones) in the 6602, and travel 
> in analog differential form to the DD60.  There they go through a string of 
> amplifiers and a scaling circuit, for the small/medium/large character size 
> selection.  Eventually they end up on the deflection plates of large 
> electrostatic deflection CRTs.  Much of the signal chain is early 1960s 
> transistors; the final couple of stages are tubes.  You can find the 
> schematics at 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/cdc/cyber/cyber_70/fieldEngr/82100010_dd60a_Mar65.pdf
> 
> What appears to be going on is that the signal chain in the DD60 has enough 
> bandwidth to draw the characters, but only barely.  So there is distortion in 
> the path, resulting in character shapes on the screen that are not the same 
> as the nominal stroke patterns generated by the controller.
> 
> I have converted the "chassis tabs 12" wire lists to a VHDL model, which you 
> can find on my Subversion server.  Run on GHDL, it demonstrates the behavior 
> of the circuit and reproduces the documented waveforms.
> 
> I have also attempted to create a SPICE model of the DD60 deflection signal 
> path.  So far that hasn't been all that successful.  I probably have bad 
> assumptions for the transistor models, and the CRT deflection plate 
> capacitance figures are also a complete guess.  My hope was to reproduce the 
> actual screen patterns, but that hasn't worked yet.
> 
> Finally, I did a much more primitive approximation of the DD60 signal path, 
> with a couple of IIR filters that very roughly imitate the RC elements in 
> that path.  That was done as part of my console display emulator program for 
> Tom Hunter's DtCyber program.  It was somewhat successful in that the 
> characters show some of the rounding and distortion that the real display 
> has, but unfortunately I can't claim that this is because it's an accurate 
> model.

Nice work!

--Toby

> 
> By the way, the displays shown on the 170 series console (CDC 565) look 
> somewhat different. ...
> 
>       paul
> 
> 

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