From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 629285ae for ; Thu, 19 Dec 2019 00:17:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 832039BC84; Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:17:48 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8AC9F9BBF9; Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:17:18 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 9BC2D9BBF9; Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:17:15 +1000 (AEST) Received: from oclsc.com (oclsc.com [206.248.137.164]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with SMTP id D22EC9B92E for ; Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:17:12 +1000 (AEST) From: Norman Wilson To: tuhs@tuhs.org Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 19:16:56 -0500 Message-ID: <1576714621.27293.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org> Subject: Re: [TUHS] Blit source X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" I sense a hint of confusion in some of the messages here. To lay that to rest if necessary (and maybe others are interested in the history anyway): As I understand it, the Blit was the original terminal, hardware done by Bart Locanthi (et al?), software by Rob Pike (et al?). It used an MC68000 CPU. Western Electric made a small production run of these terminals for use within AT&T. I don't think it was sold to the general public. By the time I arrived at Bell Labs in late 1984, the Standard Terminal of 1127 was the AT&T 5620, locally called the Jerq. This was a makeover with hardware redesigned by a product group to use a Bellmac 32 CPU, and software heavily reworked by a product group. This is the terminal that was manufactured for general sale. I'm not sure, but I think the Blit's ROM was very basic, just enough to be some sort of simple glass-tty or perhaps smartass-terminal* plus an escape sequence to let you load in new code. The Jerq had a fancier ROM, which was a somewhat-flaky ANSI-ish terminal by default, but an escape sequence put it into graphics-window-manager mode, more or less like what had run a few years earlier on the Blit. By then the code used in Research had evolved considerably, in particular allowing the tty driver to be exported to the terminal (those familiar with 9term should know what I mean). In 1127 we used a different escape sequence to download a standalone program into the terminal and replace the ROM window manager entirely, so we could run our newer and (to my taste anyway) appreciably better code. The downloaded code lived in RAM; you had to reload it whenever the terminal was power-cycled or lost its connection or whatnot. (It took a minute or so at 9600bps, rather longer at 1200. This is not the only reason we jumped at the chance to upgrade our home-computing scheme to use 9600bps over leased lines, but it was an important one.) The V8 tape was made in late 1984 (I know that for sure because I helped make it). It is unlikely to have anything for the MC68000 Blit, only stuff for the Mac-32 Jerq. Likewise for the not-really-a-release snapshots from the 9/e and 10/e eras. The 5620 ROM code is very unlikely to be there anywhere, but the replacement stuff we used should be somewhere. Norman Wilson Toronto ON