From: Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>
To: Paul Ruizendaal <pnr@planet.nl>
Cc: "tuhs@tuhs.org" <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: [TUHS] Re: Earliest UNIX Workstations?
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 11:29:12 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAC20D2MAdyfD8Xv3RYL4xgt99OG2RpOrtbjvLP3hfpx8iutfBw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <0C5D8AF8-BAB2-48B5-854B-34E3A949DE50@planet.nl>
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3554 bytes --]
On Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 10:58 AM Paul Ruizendaal <pnr@planet.nl> wrote:
>
> As a result of the recent discussion on this list I’m trying to understand
> the timeline of graphical computing on Unix, first of all in my preferred
> time slot ’75 -’85.
>
> When it comes to Bell Labs I’m aware of the following:
>
> - around 1975 the Labs worked on the Glance-G vector graphics terminal.
> This was TSS-516 based with no Unix overlap I think.
> - around the same time the Labs seem to have used the 1973 Dec VT11 vector
> graphics terminal; at least the surviving LSX Unix source has a driver for
> it
> - in 1976 there was the Terak 8510; this ran primarily USCD pascal, but it
> also ran LSX and/or MX (but maybe only much later)
>
In the famous picture of Ken and Dennis you see a Tek display connected to
the 11/20.
Simply during that time there were a number of graphics systems from the
DVST (storage tubes) like Tek 4014 to Raster Systems like the GDPs we had
at CMU. There really are too many to list.
> - then it seems to jump 1981 and to the Blit.
> - in 1984 there was MGR that was done at Bellcore
>
> Outside of the labs (but on Unix), I have:
>
> - I am not sure what graphics software ran on the SUN-1, but it must have
> been something
>
Again - W was the windowing system for the Sun board, running on the V
kernel. It was original envisioned as a very smart terminal to bigger
systems. Remember it did not have an MMU to start with. Andy added and
MMU and then eventually changed it to a 68010. VLSI Tech was born and
eventual became Sun Micro Systems but that was a few years later. I have
to believe W as moved to UNIX on the SUN Terminal and that would have been
what Chris Kent and folks started with for the microVax - but I do not know
for sure.
> - Clem just mentioned the 1981 Tektronix Magnolia system
>
1979/1980 actually -- Roger and I started that in summer of '79 and he
wrote that a year later when we go Tek money. It was originall as 'g-job'
we were building for ourselves. Our boss saw what were were doing and
Roger got $10K to do a proposal -- that document was the result.
I already had the basics of a compiler working by them (well sort of) and
the beginning of a Unix port on the test board. Jon Steinhart may be
remember some of this as they all visited us in the labs to see what we
were doing.
- Wikipedia says that X1 was 1984 and X11 was 1987; I’m not sure when it
> became Unix centered
> - Sun’s NeWS arrived only in 1989, I think?
>
> Outside of Unix, in the microcomputer world there was a lot of cheap(er)
> graphics hardware. Lot’s of stuff at 256 x 192 resolution, but up to 512 x
> 512 at the higher end. John Walker writes that the breakout product for
> Autodesk was Interact (the precursor to AutoCAD). Initially developed for
> S-100 bus systems it quickly moved to the PC. There was a lot of demand for
> CAD at a 5K price point that did not exist at a 50K price point.
>
Not completely true... 1-4K for BW was possible (expensive) but
available. I tend to believe that systems like E&S could do that. Many
raster systems went to 1K -- again is was about cost. I've forgotten the
resolution of the GDP2 but is was much higher -- it used a rather expensive
HP display. The price of memory and price of the monitor tneded to
dominate. Also the processor was not cheap -- a GDP2 had a dedicated
PDP-11/20, but that was also try of things like GT40 and the
similar systems of the time.
ᐧ
[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 5416 bytes --]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-01-26 16:31 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 56+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-01-26 15:58 [TUHS] " Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-26 16:04 ` [TUHS] " Larry McVoy
2023-01-26 16:37 ` emanuel stiebler
2023-01-26 16:51 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-01-26 16:29 ` Clem Cole [this message]
2023-01-26 22:17 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-26 22:45 ` Bakul Shah
2023-01-27 0:19 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-27 17:16 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-01-27 17:36 ` Warner Losh
2023-01-27 17:37 ` Warner Losh
2023-01-27 17:45 ` Rich Salz
2023-01-27 17:54 ` Warner Losh
2023-01-28 9:14 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-01-28 11:05 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-28 15:38 ` Warner Losh
2023-01-28 18:50 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-01-29 6:48 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-01-29 20:39 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-27 17:43 ` josh
2023-01-26 16:51 ` Warner Losh
2023-01-26 18:15 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-01-26 19:39 ` Bakul Shah
2023-01-27 10:59 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-01-26 18:14 ` Jon Steinhart
2023-01-26 20:44 ` Rob Pike
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2023-01-29 23:20 Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-01-30 0:25 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-01-30 5:23 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-01-30 8:45 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-30 9:22 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-01-31 11:35 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-01-31 23:29 ` Chris Hanson
2023-01-30 13:00 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-02-06 7:01 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-02-06 8:39 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-01-26 13:15 Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-01-26 0:31 [TUHS] " Joseph Holsten
2023-01-26 0:51 ` [TUHS] " segaloco via TUHS
2023-01-26 1:06 ` Luther Johnson
2023-01-26 1:15 ` Jon Steinhart
2023-01-26 1:01 ` Larry Stewart
2023-01-26 13:25 ` Marc Donner
2023-01-26 13:58 ` arnold
2023-01-31 2:03 ` Mary Ann Horton
2023-01-31 17:43 ` Marc Donner
2023-01-26 1:12 ` Tom Lyon
2023-01-26 1:47 ` Chris Hanson
2023-01-26 7:20 ` John Cowan
2023-01-26 7:33 ` Dave Horsfall
[not found] ` <CAD2gp_QtUPmd78yAixvKK1wzPX67HKZXzU5cJnVUbcWtMounGQ@mail.g mail.com>
2023-01-26 16:35 ` John Foust via TUHS
2023-01-26 17:58 ` Jon Forrest
2023-01-26 18:04 ` Jon Steinhart
2023-01-26 9:52 ` emanuel stiebler
2023-01-26 9:58 ` Rob Pike
2023-01-26 10:09 ` Jaap Akkerhuis via TUHS
2023-01-26 15:14 ` Clem Cole
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=CAC20D2MAdyfD8Xv3RYL4xgt99OG2RpOrtbjvLP3hfpx8iutfBw@mail.gmail.com \
--to=clemc@ccc.com \
--cc=pnr@planet.nl \
--cc=tuhs@tuhs.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).