Back in the day, I could not afford a terminal. All I could afford was
a Polymorphic video card and a real cheap keyboard to connect to my
IMSAI 8080 (with a memory card borrowed from a friend that eventually I
bought from him). This was in the 1970's, and I was still in the Navy
and my pay was minimal at best.
Bob
On 8/30/2023 4:15 PM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
/115,200 in the S100 era was also rare. It was usually 9600 or 19200 at
the top end/
That is true. I remember setting my serial board for external baud rate
and the SWTPC CT-82 terminal to generate the baud rate and I think it
was like 38,400 maximum.
My VT-220 maxes out at 9600 and my VT-330+ maxes out at 19,200.
Remember the teletypes ran at 110 baud or slower. The decwrite and GE
Terminet were speed demons at 300 and 1200 baud.
On 8/30/2023 3:02 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
On Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 1:52 PM Mike Katz via cctalk
<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
I had a video board and keyboard on my Gimix SS-50 system.
Why?
1. The video board/monitor is much faster than a terminal even at
115,200 baud.
115,200 in the S100 era was also rare. It was usually 9600 or 19200 at
the top end.
2. A Video board, keyboard and monitor was way cheaper back then
than a
terminal (Yes there was the SWTPc CT64 and the Lear Siegler ADM-3A
kits,
but fully loaded they weren't all that cheap).
3. If the video board supports any kind of graphics that is another
reason. The Gimix video board supported graphics with a RAM
character
generator.
4. It's a lot less code to directly splat characters into memory than
to generate
all the escape sequences you need to 'draw' anything interesting (be
it a game,
a graph or just an emacs buffer).
I got into this just after the S100 era, and I opted for the Rainbow
because it
was both a terminal I could connect to other systems, and a system
with an
internal graphics card. The terminal had completed the move inside the
computer
after starting out life as a computer added onto the terminal. DECs
terminals
followed this path. Many of the S100 systems that had graphics cards
were also
chasing after newish workstations that were just starting to be built.
Warner
On 8/30/2023 2:38 PM, W2HX via cctalk wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I recently acquired an S-100 computer, and it came with a video
card and a keyboard (3rd party products, not originally equipped
with these). I am trying to figure out the benefits of having a
video card and keyboard vs just using a serial port and terminal.
Certainly if the video card supported graphics, that would be a
reason to go that route over a terminal. As for the keyboard,
ok-maybe you need specific keys for a specific application. But I
don't understand the video monitor. I could understand maybe if
there was an RF modulator so that you could use a standard TV.
That would save the builder some money. But this computer just
provides composite.
>
> Other than graphics (and maybe some special function keys for an
application on a keyboard), why would an S-100 builder in those
days opt to buy a video card instead of a terminal?
>
> Thanks for the bandwidth.
>
> 73 Eugene W2HX
> Subscribe to my Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@w2hx/videos
>
--
Bob Grabau
http://www.astrohbg.org
http://www.cherrysprings.org
Our Star Party for 2024: June 6-9, 2024 at Cherry Springs State Park, PA
