[TUHS] Re: Jerq menuhit/mhit

On Jul 2, 2023, at 3:11 AM, arnold(a)skeeve.com wrote: I had a DMD 5620 for a few (too short) years at Georgia Tech; AT&T gifted a number of them as well as two 3B20s to us. We used the DMDs on a vax running 4.2 BSD. They were heavy suckers! I think close to 50 pounds! It was wonderful to use. Extremely productive as compared to a regular terminal with just one session. Unfortunately, there were enough of the things in use that it drove the poor vax to its knees. Nonetheless, I have fond memories of it to this day. Arnold Rob Pike <robpike(a)gmail.com> wrote: > The original name was Jerq, which was first the name given by friends at > Lucasfilm to the Three Rivers PERQ workstations they had, for which the > Pascal-written software and operating system were unsatisfactory. Bart > Locanthi and I (with Greg Chesson and Dave Ditzel?) visited Lucasfilm in > 1981 and we saw all the potential there with none of the realization. My > personal aha was that, as on the Alto, only one thing could be running at a > time and that was a profound limitation. When we began to design our answer > to these problems a few weeks later, we called Lucasfilm to ask if they > minded us borrowing their excellent rude name, and they readily agreed. > > Our slogan: A jerq at every desk. > > This was cool, we had good shirts, and Bart even made license plates that > read JERQ. But when the thing started to get interesting, Sam Morgan, 127's > director, got very nervous. He didn't want to talk to his colleagues about > how good our jerqs were. So he proposed "RX" (research experimental) and > Bart and I immediately huddled down and came up with blit, from bitblt, and > that was accepted. So it was Sam who forced the issue. A shame really, but > BTL management wasn't famous for its sense of humor. > > This is all with the 68000 original, which had been hand-built by us using > wire wrap and then in larger but still modest numbers by a company on Long > Island whose name was Northern Atlantic if I remember right. Wing Moy did > most of the work there. > > Teletype came and measured and analyzed and proposed building some with > metal cases and more mass producible board technology, and that became what > people around the company, and later elsewhere, called the Blit. > > The DMD-5620 was the WE32000 version, which resulted from a decision by > Scanlon to ram up WE32000 production by selling this product with the chip > in it, at a loss because the chip alone cost something like $2000, compared > to something like $25 for the 68000. Also, the WE32000 was far less > suitable a chip, being buggy and also slower at the specific tasks like bit > shifting that you needed for fast graphics. > > I still have the license plate. Here's a picture I made today. > > [image: IMG_4673.jpg] > > For those perhaps too young to understand what a revolution the merging of > graphics and multitasking was back then, some testimonials from the time: > > From dmr Tue Apr 7 02:01 EST 1981 remote from research > > > Don't lose interest in the jerq terminal stuff, no matter what > > momentary problems you have with the device or the system. > > I think the approach and the progress so far are very exciting. > > > > From wild!scj Sun Nov 21 09:52 EST 1982 > > Well, after an afternoon with the bilt, seeing asteroids, crabs, maxwell, > > etc. etc, I asked Sarah what she liked best. > > > "I liked mpx best" > > > "What did you like about it?" > > > "I liked making all the different boxes, and making all the different things > > happen in them, and making them go away." > > > I think "universal appeal" is not too strong a term... > > > > From alice!vax135!tbl Sat May 14 12:07:42 1983 > > To: alice!rob > > Subject: you've spoiled me > > > I can't believe it. I'm sitting here at home in front of my > > 2621, and I can't work. > > > Damn it. I've got to get a blit at home. > > [Turner and I are really pleased with the software. Good job!] > > > > -rob > > > On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 1:35 AM Seth Morabito <web(a)loomcom.com> wrote: > >> Speaking of the Jerq... >> Is there a definitive history anywhere of the progression from Jerq up >> through the AT&T 730MTG? When I wrote my DMD5620 emulator I tried to find a >> complete history, but wasn't able to. I just found various (possibly >> apocryphal) bits and pieces here and there about AT&T objecting to various >> names until "DMD" was settled on by marketing at some point, and forcing >> the use of a WE32K in the 5620 for make-corporate-happy reasons. >> -Seth >> -- >> Seth Morabito * Poulsbo, WA * https://loomcom.com/