<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Our slogan: A jerq at every desk.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">I still have the license plate. Here's a picture I made today.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><img src="cid:ii_ljj4jsr60" alt="IMG_4673.jpg" width="455" height="263"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">For those perhaps too young to understand what a revolution the merging of graphics and multitasking was back then, some testimonials from the time:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">>From dmr Tue Apr<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>7 02:01 EST 1981 remote from research</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"><br></span></p>
<p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">Don't lose interest in the jerq terminal stuff, no matter what</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">momentary problems you have with the device or the system.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">I think the approach and the progress so far are very exciting.</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"><br></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"><br></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">From wild!scj Sun Nov 21 09:52 EST 1982</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">Well, after an afternoon with the bilt, seeing asteroids, crabs, maxwell,</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">etc. etc, I asked Sarah what she liked best.</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">"I liked mpx best"</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">"What did you like about it?"</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">"I liked making all the different boxes, and making all the different things</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">happen in them, and making them go away."</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">
</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">I think "universal appeal" is not too strong a term...</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">From alice!vax135!tbl Sat May 14 12:07:42 1983</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">To: alice!rob</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">Subject: you've spoiled me</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">I can't believe it.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>I'm sitting here at home in front of my</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">2621, and I can't work.</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">Damn it.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>I've got to get a blit at home.</span></p><p class="gmail-p2" style="margin:0px;font:14px "Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0);min-height:16px"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"></span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">
</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures">[Turner and I are really pleased with the software.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Good job!]</span></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></p><p class="gmail-p1" style="margin:0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Lucida Grande Mono550";color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-variant-ligatures:no-common-ligatures"><br></span></p></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">-rob</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 1:35 AM Seth Morabito <<a href="mailto:web@loomcom.com">web@loomcom.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Speaking of the Jerq...<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
-Seth<br>
-- <br>
Seth Morabito * Poulsbo, WA * <a href="https://loomcom.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://loomcom.com/</a><br>
</blockquote></div>