From: Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com>
To: Paul Ruizendaal <pnr@planet.nl>
Cc: "tuhs@tuhs.org" <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: [TUHS] Re: Origins of the frame buffer device
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2023 09:23:56 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAEoi9W6ZVCuVu2cRsfJkJsbHH6HqZrMUdDJ5SvLUfm_JOGN0wg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <B39551C9-2672-4584-94AF-33703C0ACBAB@planet.nl>
On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 7:53 AM Paul Ruizendaal <pnr@planet.nl> wrote:
> This also has a relation to the point about what constitutes a "workstation" and one of the comments was that it needs to have "integrated graphics". What is integrated in this historical context -- is it a shared memory frame buffer, is it a shared CPU, is it physically in the same box or just an integrated user experience? It seems to me that it is not easy to delineate. Consider a Vax connected to a Tek raster scan display, a Vax connected to a Blit, Clem’s Magnolia and a networked Sun-1. Which ones are workstations? If shared memory is the key only Clem’s Magnolia and the Sun-1 qualify. If it is a shared CPU only a standalone Sun-1 qualifies, but its CPU would be heavily taxed when doing graphics, so standalone graphics was maybe not a normal use case. For now my rule of thumb is that it means (in a 1980’s-1990’s context) a high-bandwidth path between the compute side and display side, with enough total combined power to drive both the workload and the display.
I wouldn't try to be too rigid in your terms here. The term
"workstation" was probably never well-defined; it had more of an
intuitive connotation of a machine that was more powerful than
something you could get on the consumer market (like a PC or 8-bit
microcomputer), but wasn't a minicomputer or mainframe/supercomputer.
By the early 90s this was understood to mean a single-user machine in
a desktop or deskside form factor with a graphics display, and a more
advanced operating system than something you'd get on a consumer-grade
machine. But the term probably predated that. Generally, workstations
were machines marketed towards science/engineering/technology
applications, and so intended for a person doing "work", as opposed to
home computing or large scale business data-processing.
Would a Tek 4014 connected to a VAX count? Maybe? I mean, bicycles
have saddles, but we also put saddles on horses, so sure, in the late
70s or early 80s, why not. By the 1990s, maybe not so much.
- Dan C.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-03-08 14:24 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 40+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-03-05 15:01 [TUHS] " Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-05 17:29 ` [TUHS] " Grant Taylor via TUHS
2023-03-05 18:25 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-06 8:51 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-06 8:57 ` Rob Pike
2023-03-06 11:09 ` Henry Bent
2023-03-06 16:02 ` Theodore Ts'o
2023-03-06 22:47 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-06 23:10 ` Rob Pike
2023-03-08 12:53 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-03-08 14:23 ` Dan Cross [this message]
2023-03-08 15:06 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-03-08 19:35 ` Dan Cross
2023-03-08 16:55 ` Theodore Ts'o
2023-03-08 17:46 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-08 17:45 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-08 18:12 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-08 18:21 ` Larry McVoy
2023-03-08 18:43 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-08 18:45 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2023-03-08 22:44 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-09 14:42 ` Paul Winalski
2023-03-06 23:20 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-07 1:24 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-08 3:07 ` Rob Gingell
2023-03-08 12:51 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-08 13:05 ` Warner Losh
2023-03-08 13:17 ` Arno Griffioen via TUHS
2023-03-07 1:54 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-05 18:52 Noel Chiappa
2023-03-05 20:43 ` Rob Pike
2023-03-06 10:43 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-03-07 1:21 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-08 5:43 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-03-09 23:24 ` emanuel stiebler
2023-03-10 1:44 ` Lawrence Stewart
2023-03-06 23:16 Norman Wilson
2023-03-06 23:24 ` Larry McVoy
2023-03-07 12:08 ` arnold
2023-03-07 16:42 ` Theodore Ts'o
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