[TUHS] Earliest UNIX Workstations?

Jon Steinhart jon at fourwinds.com
Fri Jan 27 04:14:22 AEST 2023


Paul Ruizendaal writes:
> As a result of the recent discussion on this list I’m trying to understand the timeline of graphical computing on Unix, first of all in my preferred time slot ’75 -’85.
> 
> When it comes to Bell Labs I’m aware of the following:
> 
> - around 1975 the Labs worked on the Glance-G vector graphics terminal. This was TSS-516 based with no Unix overlap I think.
> - around the same time the Labs seem to have used the 1973 Dec VT11 vector graphics terminal; at least the surviving LSX Unix source has a driver for it
> - in 1976 there was the Terak 8510; this ran primarily USCD pascal, but it also ran LSX and/or MX (but maybe only much later)
> - then it seems to jump 1981 and to the Blit.
> - in 1984 there was MGR that was done at Bellcore
> 
> Outside of the labs (but on Unix), I have:
> 
> - I am not sure what graphics software ran on the SUN-1, but it must have been something
> - Clem just mentioned the 1981 Tektronix Magnolia system
> - Wikipedia says that X1 was 1984 and X11 was 1987; I’m not sure when it became Unix centered
> - Sun’s NeWS arrived only in 1989, I think?
> 
> Outside of Unix, in the microcomputer world there was a lot of cheap(er) graphics hardware. Lot’s of stuff at 256 x 192 resolution, but up to 512 x 512 at the higher end. John Walker writes that the breakout product for Autodesk was Interact (the precursor to AutoCAD). Initially developed for S-100 bus systems it quickly moved to the PC. There was a lot of demand for CAD at a 5K price point that did not exist at a 50K price point.

The timeline for the GLANCE-G is off by a few years.  It might
have been as early as 1969 but I don't remember when the transition
from GLANCE-C (characters only) to GLANCE-G (graphics) occurred.
I'm absolutely sure that the G existed in 1972 since I worked on it then.
The only UNIX overlap was when the Ring was adapted for the PDP-11 so
that Ken could have a GLANCE-G for chess.

I have a vague memory of other graphics work at the labs; I remember
being in someone's lab that had modified big Crown audio power amps
for current feedback to drive deflection coils, but no other details.


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