hackerb9
Experienced Member
I was reading about the Synclavier II system and the Wikipedia page mentioned that the Signal File Manager used a VT640 graphics terminal, which I'd never heard of. Frustratingly, the link to VT640 went to "No such Wikipedia article".
It was very hard to find any information about it, but once I did I considered making a stub entry on Wikipedia. However, I know next to nothing and there's surely somebody with actual knowledge, probably somebody here, who would be much more qualified to create a proper encyclopedic entry.
Here's the little bits I know:
- The "VT640 Retro-Graphics" was a card to upgrade the DEC VT100 with 640x480 bitmap graphics. (Perhaps that's where the name "VT640" came from?)
- The VT640 Retro-Graphics was released in September of 1980 (original ad), preceded by a board for the ADM terminal in 1978
- By 1981, Retro-Graphics was a million dollar industry
- In 1981, the VT640S cost $1230 and came as three boards for the user to upgrade.
- It appears to have been Tektronix 4010 compatible, but obviously with a much lower resolution
- The manufacturer was not Digital Equipment Corp., but the confusingly named "Digital Engineering, Inc"
- Some pictures show a lightpen being used, but I do not know how that was related to the VT640.
- In 1981, a rebadged VT100 with a VT640 card in it was sold as a terminal for communicating with the Synclavier II computer and keyboard
- Also by 1981, Digital Engineering was using Tektronix 4027 emulation to do color on their more advanced cards
- By 1982, Digital Engineering had branched out to creating add-on graphics cards for many other different terminals (ADM3A, VT103, VT132, TI OPTI900, DataMedia) and the VT640 was advertised at SIGGRAPH 1982 as costing $1560 for board + $1300 to $1800 for VT100 terminal
- The Digital Engineering VT640 was used on a large scale at a least one site when over 200 VT100s at the Los Alamos Supercomputer Center were converted to VT640s in 1983. They were used there for scientific visualization until at least 1986.
- By 1986 there were several other "VT640" retrofit boards, but with different capabilities and from different companies: Selanar, ID Systems, C. Itoh 261, and C. Itoh 414
- That same year, 1986, "Digital Engineering, Inc" is referred to as "now defunct"
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