5 Mar
2023
5 Mar
'23
7:52 p.m.
From: Kenneth Goodwin
The first frame buffers from Evans and Sutherland were
at University of
Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall.
Circa 1974 to 1978.
Were those on PDP-11's, or PDP-10's? (Really early E+S gear attached to
PDP-10's; '74-'78 sounds like an interim period.)
Noel
5 Mar
5 Mar
9:43 p.m.
New subject: Origins of the frame buffer device
There was a Three Rivers Graphic Wonder (a vector display) on the
University of Toronto PDP-11/45 in 1975, maybe 1974. There wasn't a frame
buffer until Dave Tennenhouse built one around 1978 - not sure of that
date, maybe a little later
.
256x256, 8 bits per pixel, or 65kilobytes, the full data address space of
the PDP-11.
-rob
On Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 5:52 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
From: Kenneth
Goodwin
The first frame buffers from Evans and Sutherland
were at University
of
Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall.
Circa 1974 to 1978.
Were those on PDP-11's, or PDP-10's? (Really early E+S gear attached to
PDP-10's; '74-'78 sounds like an interim period.)
Noel
6 Mar
6 Mar
11:43 a.m.
New subject: Origins of the frame buffer device
A 256x256 frame buffer at the University of Toronto is mentioned in
Ronald M. Baecker
Interactive graphics as a vehicle for the enhancement of human creativity
Proceedings of the 5th Canadian Man-Computer Communications Conference:
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 26 - 27 May 1977
https://graphicsinterface.org/wp-content/uploads/cmccc1977-10.pdf
https://graphicsinterface.org/proceedings/cmccc1977/cmccc1977-10/
USA/Canada Visit, August 1977 by Bob Hopgood
http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acd/literature/reports/p002.htm
some discussion on early frame buffers in
Ronald Baecker
Digital video display systems and dynamic graphics
ACM SIGGRAPH August 1979
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/965103.807424
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/965103.807424
On Mon, Mar 06, 2023 at 07:43:48AM +1100, Rob Pike wrote:
There was a Three Rivers Graphic Wonder (a vector
display) on the
University of Toronto PDP-11/45 in 1975, maybe 1974. There wasn't a frame
buffer until Dave Tennenhouse built one around 1978 - not sure of that
date, maybe a little later
.
256x256, 8 bits per pixel, or 65kilobytes, the full data address space of
the PDP-11.
-rob
On Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 5:52 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
> > From: Kenneth Goodwin
>
> > The first frame buffers from Evans and Sutherland were at University
> of
> > Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall.
> > Circa 1974 to 1978.
>
> Were those on PDP-11's, or PDP-10's? (Really early E+S gear attached to
> PDP-10's; '74-'78 sounds like an interim period.)
>
> Noel
>
>
7 Mar
7 Mar
2:21 a.m.
New subject: Origins of the frame buffer device
Pdp 11/04 as a device controller.
As I recall, they used a Dec parallel interface to connect the frame
buffer controller to the host systems. Tom Duff would be the subject matter
expert on the actual hardware. (If you can get his attention and drag him
out of retirement for a bit.) This was pre networks.
There was a second company that entered the market a few years later. The
name is unfortunately in external offline storage...
We have come a LONG WAY since those days..
On Sun, Mar 5, 2023, 1:52 PM Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
From: Kenneth
Goodwin
The first frame buffers from Evans and Sutherland
were at University
of
Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall.
Circa 1974 to 1978.
Were those on PDP-11's, or PDP-10's? (Really early E+S gear attached to
PDP-10's; '74-'78 sounds like an interim period.)
Noel
8 Mar
8 Mar
6:43 a.m.
New subject: Origins of the frame buffer device
Noel Chiappa wrote:
The Picture System from 1974 was based on a PDP-11/05. It looks like
vector graphics rather than a frame buffer though.
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Evans_Sutherland/EvansSut…
The first
frame buffers from Evans and Sutherland were at University
of Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall. Circa 1974 to 1978.
Were those on PDP-11's, or PDP-10's? (Really early E+S gear attached to
PDP-10's; '74-'78 sounds like an interim period.) 
10 Mar
10 Mar
12:24 a.m.
New subject: Origins of the frame buffer device
On 2023-03-08 00:43, Lars Brinkhoff wrote:
Noel Chiappa wrote:
The Picture System from 1974 was based on a PDP-11/05. It looks like
vector graphics rather than a frame buffer though.
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Evans_Sutherland/EvansSut…
If the drawing speed is measured in inches, probably a vector screen ...
The first
frame buffers from Evans and Sutherland were at University
of Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall. Circa 1974 to 1978.
Were those on PDP-11's, or PDP-10's? (Really early E+S gear attached to
PDP-10's; '74-'78 sounds like an interim period.) 
2:44 a.m.
New subject: Origins of the frame buffer device
Noel Chiappa wrote:
>>> The first frame buffers from Evans and
Sutherland were at University
>>> of Utah, DOD SITES and NYIT CGL as I recall. Circa 1974 to 1978.
>>
Other historical datapoints:
I was at MIT ’72-’76 in the Architecture Machine Group (mostly because I was intimidated
by the reception desk at LCS).
There were a series of frame buffers during that time, including an 8-bit color mapped one
I built in early 1976 for a senior thesis (a color printer).
I don’t think anyone used them for programming or a GUI. Instead they were image output
devices. Programming was mostly Imlacs or Tek or ASR33s or IBM 2741s.
The weirdest display was somehow we had a wacky prototype 24-bit machine with a vector
display. One of the scientists loaded a series of short vectors to turn it into a 128x128
raster display. The thing filled 3 or 4 racks.
-L
621
days inactive
626
days old
6 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
emanuel stiebler -
jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu -
Jonathan Gray -
Kenneth Goodwin -
Lars Brinkhoff -
Lawrence Stewart -
Rob Pike