1996-12-07 - Re: The Science Generations

Header Data

From: Eric Blossom <eb@comsec.com>
To: tcmay@got.net
Message Hash: 4eabc052ebb8c82a4be626824a91540ab0dc25ce12077a21922097187f55fbfe
Message ID: <199612071749.JAA08668@comsec.com>
Reply To: <v03007800aece135625e1@[207.167.93.63]>
UTC Datetime: 1996-12-07 18:13:20 UTC
Raw Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 10:13:20 -0800 (PST)

Raw message

From: Eric Blossom <eb@comsec.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 10:13:20 -0800 (PST)
To: tcmay@got.net
Subject: Re: The Science Generations
In-Reply-To: <v03007800aece135625e1@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <199612071749.JAA08668@comsec.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Indeed, in the 1970s I was using H-P 9825s and DEC PDP 11/34s, but the
> teenagers of that decade were, if they were fortunate and energetic, using
> PETs, Apple IIs, and the like.

Right On!  PDP 11's rule!!!

My favorite one was an 11/34 with "Hardware Floating Point" that had a
GT-43 vector display processor as a coprocessor.  You'd build a double
buffered display list of vector instructions for the coprocessor,
using your handy dandy fortran program, and then let it rip.  As long
as you weren't trying to do hidden line removal, or draw more than
about 200 vectors, you could get smooth, real-time wire frame
animation.  We had it hooked up to a couple of knob boxes and some
nice three axis joy sticks connected to 10 bit A/D's.

Eric





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