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The SIGGRAPH-82 conference held in Boston had a lot of new graphics
equipment on display.
A number of graphics work-stations in the $8500 to $20K range were
shown, with the new Apollo {19 Alpha Road, Chelmsford, MA 01824, Tel:
(617) 256-6600} color work station going for $60K.
Ikonas {531 Pylon Drive, Raleigh, NC 27606, Tel: (919) 848-8701} seems
to offer the highest performance color raster display with real-time
hidden-surface elimination and shading using up to 4K colors; Megatek
{3985 Sorrento Valley Blvd., San Diego, CA 92121, Tel: (714) 455-5590}
is a close second with real-time display, but only 16 colors, only
convex bodies, and proprietary software. Both of these are in the $50K
to $100K range.
Expensive ($100K - $400K) systems were shown by CalComp-Saunders {2411
W. La Palma, Anaheim, CA 92801, Tel: (714) 821-2281} and SciTex {75-D
Wiggins Avenue, Bedford, MA 01730, Tel: (617) 275-5150} for automatic
high-resolution raster to vector conversion of photographic images,
maps, and the like. The facility is available on a service bureau
basis for $60 to $100/hour from Chicago Aerial Surveys {2140 Wolf Road,
Des Plaines, IL 60018, Tel: (312) 298-1480}.
A Japanese company, Totec Ltd. {19151 Parthenia Avenue "A", Northridge,
CA 91324, Tel: (213) 993-9413}, introduced an optical character reader
about the size of a small desk-top photocopier which reads 6 different
typewriter fonts at 5 pages/min; price is about $13K. I believe that
this is substantially less than optical character readers have cost in
the past. Toshiba {Toshiba America, Inc., Information Systems
Division, 2441 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92680, Tel: (714) 730-5000}
has a similar reader, the OCR-V100, supporting 4 fonts with the same 5
pages/min rate; price is $10.5K.
Low cost ($1500 - $2500) plotters with 6 to 10 pens were shown by
Hewlett Packard {3000 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94303, Tel: (415)
857-7246}, Houston Instrument {8500 Cameron Road, Austin, TX 78753,
Tel: (512) 835-0900}, Panasonic {One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094,
Tel: (201) 348-5278}, and Watanabe {3186-D Airway Avenue, Costa Mesa,
CA 92626, Tel: (714) 546-5344}. Houston Instrument showed a new
high-speed (22 inch/sec) plotter which has cleaner lines and a lower
price than comparable plotters in their DMP line (which will probably
be phased out).
Polaroid {549 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139, Tel: (617)
577-2000} showed a color film recorder for high-quality color hardcopy
from color raster systems; price is about $6K, half that of the
competitors Matrix Instruments {2525 Maricopa St., Torrance, CA 90503,
Tel: (213) 320-8334} and Logetronics (LogE/Dunn) {7001 Loisdale Road,
Springfield, VA 22150, Tel: (703) 971-1400}.
A large number of monochrome and color display terminals were shown.
The following list includes only those which are low cost, and can be
used as an alphanumeric display terminal. It excludes (a) systems like
the Intecolor which do not provide support for 128 ASCII characters,
(b) systems with inadequate resolution (e.g. DEC VT105 with 512H x
256V) (c) retrofits boards like Selanar and Autograph, (d) systems
which do not provide VT52 or VT100 compatibility, (e) work stations,
(f) microcomputer systems, and (g) high-performance (and expensive)
displays. The distributors listed are for the Salt Lake / Denver area.
Those which have some noteworthy feature have a "Note:" entry.
Terminal: CIT-414
Price: $1895 (discountable)
Screen: 12" green P39 phosphor, 80C x 24L
Keyboard: Standard DEC VT100
Emulation: VT100, VT52
Chars: 7 x 9 in 8 x 10 matrix
Graphics: 640H x 480v (in 65K x 65K addressable area); native
mode; Tektronix mode
Manufacturer: C. Itoh Electronics, Tokyo, Japan
Distributor: Acro Corp., 2515 McCabe Way, Irvine, CA 92713; Tel:
(714) 557-5118; Data Systems Marketing, SLC
Tel: (801) 292-6666
Terminal: CIT-427 {color}
Price: $3350 (est; discountable)
Screen: 12", 80C x 34L
Keyboard: Standard DEC VT100
Emulation: VT100, VT52
Chars: ?; up to 7 downloadable fonts
Graphics: 640H x 480v, 8 displayable colors from 64, (in 65K x 65K
addressable area); native mode; Tektronix mode (4010 and
4027); convex polygon fill
Note: Unusually large display memory and downloadable fonts
Manufacturer: C. Itoh Electronics, Tokyo, Japan
Distributor: Acro Corp., 2515 McCabe Way, Irvine, CA 92713; Tel:
(714) 557-5118; Data Systems Marketing, SLC
Tel: (801) 292-6666
Terminal: ID-100VA, ID-100VB {color}
Price: $4300 - $5900
Screen: 80C x 24L, 132C x 24L
Keyboard: 128 ASCII; VT100 standard
Emulation: VT100
Chars: 7 x 9
Graphics: 512H x 240V (VA), 608H x 480V (VB), 8 colors, 8 grey
levels, Tektronix compatible, native mode 16K x 16K with
reduction factors 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32, window panning
Note: Unusually large display memory
Manufacturer: ID Systems Corp., 4093 Leap Road, Hilliard, OH 43026;
Tel: (614) 876-1595
Distributor: Barnhill Assoc., Murray, UT; Tel: (801) 262-3000 {Mike
Witt}
Terminal: Modgraph G-100
Price: $3000
Screen: 15", green P-39 phosphor, 41..96C x 1..46L (5..6 pages
scrollable); 1..7L status display
Keyboard: 128 ASCII, 20 downloadable function keys
Emulation: VT100, VT52
Chars: 7 x 9 in 8 x 12 matrix
Graphics: 768H x 585V (two scrollable pages), 5 x 7 char in 8 x 8
matrix (four sizes), Tektronix compatible
Note: Unusually large text display
Manufacturer: Modgraph, 1393 Main St., Waltham, MA 02154; Tel: (617)
890-5764
Distributor: Westek Data, SLC {Randy Allen}; Tel: (801) 621-0999
Terminal: MVI-7 {color}
Price: $3500 (+$500 for multi-plane add-on; +$400 for lightpen,
+$400 for RGB video output)
Screen: 13", status line, 80C x 56L (24L visible), 160C x 28L,
140C x 32L; 4 split screens (H or V)
Keyboard: 128 ASCII, 24 function keys (12 fixed, 12 downloadable)
Emulation: VT52, VT100
Chars: 7 x 9 in 9 x 12 matrix; 1280 user-programmable symbols
Graphics: 720H x 288V, 8 colors (Intecolor emulation)
Manufacturer: Colorgraphic Communications Corporation, 2370 John Glenn
Drive, P.O. Box 80448, Atlanta, GA 30366;
Tel: (404)455-3921
Distributor: P.A.R. Associates, 1199 So. Main St., Centerville, UT;
Tel: (801) 292-8145
Terminal: MVI-819 {color}
Price: $3500 (+$500 for multi-plane add-on; +$500 for lightpen,
+$400 for RGB video output)
Screen: 19", status line, 80C x 48L, 80C x 192L, 160C x 96L; 4
split screens (H or V)
Keyboard: 128 ASCII, 24 function keys (12 fixed, 12 downloadable)
Emulation: VT52, VT100
Chars: 8 x 8
Note: Very large physical screen size, split screen facility
Graphics: 160 x 192 (Intecolor emulation)
Distributor: P.A.R. Associates, 1199 So. Main St., Centerville, UT;
Tel: (801) 292-8145
Terminal: MX-700, MX-707, MX-717
Price: $2400, $2700, $2950
Screen: 17", 160C x 66L, 4 split screens
Keyboard: VT100 standard
Emulation: VT100
Chars: 5 x 7
Graphics: 480H x 264V, 960H x 528V
Note: ENORMOUS text area - 2 full pages of text!; split screen
facility
Manufacturer: Quadram Corp., 4357 Park Drive, Norcross, GA 30093; Tel:
(404) 923-6666
Distributor: ?
Terminal: NJC-M1401
Price: ?
Screen: 14", green P-39 phosphor, 86C x 30L, 80C x 30L, italics,
1..3 view planes
Keyboard: 128 ASCII, 40 downloadable function keys
Emulation: VT100
Chars: 24 x 12
Graphics: 1032H x 780V, Tektronix compatible
Note: Unusually high resolution, italic characters
Manufacturer: Nippon Computer Co., Tokyo, Japan
Distributor: ?
Terminal: Visual 500
Price: $2500 ($1870 to Univ. of Utah)
Screen: 14", 80C x 33L + 34th status line
Keyboard: 128 ASCII, N-key rollover, 12 downloadable function keys
Emulation: VT52
Chars: 7 x 11 in 9 x 14 matrix
Graphics: 768H x 585V, Tektronix compatible, rectangle fill, 4
character sizes, selective erase, write complement
Note: Graphics resolution about 50% higher than retrofits
offer; alphanumeric display is also 50% bigger
Manufacturer: Visual Technology Inc., 540 Main St., Tewksbury, MA
01876; Tel: (617) 851-5000
Distributor: Acorn Data Products {Andy Green}, Denver, CO; Tel: (800)
525-7421; in SLC, Tel: (801) 973-7958 {Dave Dahlberg}
Terminal: VT640
Price: $1560 for board + $1300 to $1800 for VT100 terminal
Screen: 80C x 24L, 132C x 24L
Keyboard: VT100 standard
Emulation: VT100, VT52, Tektronix compatible
Chars:
Graphics: 640H x 480V
Note: This is a retrofit on a standard DEC VT100; retrofits
made also for ADM3A, VT103, VT132, TI OPTI900, Data
Media
Manufacturer: Digital Engineering, 630 Bercut Drive, Sacramento, CA
95814; Tel: (916) 447-7600
Distributor: ?