Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!tank.uchicago.edu!kur7
From: kur7@tank.uchicago.edu (Shin Kurokawa)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Falco 5000 -- Review Part 1(?? :-)
Message-ID: <6538@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 89 10:12:37 GMT
Sender: kur7@tank.uchicago.edu
Reply-To: kur7@tank.uchicago.edu (Shin Kurokawa)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 60

Hello everybody!!! Now that the "EASY MONEY" business has been
taken care of, and the guy has been "de-rezzed"(remember TRON?), 
let's get back to the *real* comp.term discussion! :-D

I just received the Falco 5000 as a demo-unit from our friendly
neighbor, the Mr.Salesman. It's the top-of-the-line model in the
Falco's 5000-Series. Pretty impressive at first sight, so let me
tell you what it's got(trans:the things that I've learned so far :-)
OK. 

This is a multi-host/multi-session/multi-windows/multi-everything 
terminal. Equipped with 3 totally independent RS232/422 ports, it can be
connected with three different hosts, using different terminal
emulation (i.e. tvi955 on host 1, vt100 on host 2, tek on host
3, etc.);and the graphics and text are totally mixable, as far
as I can tell. I haven't gone through all the different
emulations, but basically it's capable of mimicking all the
vt-series, tvi-950/955, wyse50, tek4014/10, and some dozen or so
more. The screen has a resolution of 1120x400, so everything is
pretty nice to look at, even in the 50x132 text mode. The "auto-fonts"
feature resizes all the characters on the screen as soon as one changes 
the number of lines(and columns) displayed on the screen at any
one time (??!!).

Th windows are basically horizontal partitions of the screen,
and one can have up to six windows displayable at any one time. 
And, like I said before, one can have different terminal
emulations on each window. The first line of each window is
reserved as the status line, although it's defeatable. This line
is used to display what emulation mode that the window is in,
the cursor position, the window number, time(yes, it has a
built-in alarm clock!), and other stuff that I don't know yet. 

All this comes in a unit, which is slightly larger than the DEC
VT-330 terminal. 

Oh, as a bonus feature, the unit comes with what Falco calls
"Desktop utility"--- on-screen calendar and a calculator which
one can move around the screen using the cursor keys. (Hey, they
*are* useful!! :-)

Right now, I've connected the 5000 to a microvax2 by two
19200bps lines...though my 150-minutes of experience with the
5000 so far hasn't taught me how to switch from one session to
the other :-). A lot of escape sequences (to control the
terminal, e.g. to change the brightness, etc.) , can be
programmed into the function keys, and the 5000 is very kind for
those users who do a lot of extensive f-key programming.

Well, so much for now, since I just got this machine. I
apologize for my sketchy descriptions here, but I thought that
this might be of interest to a lot of people, since there were
discussions on Falco terminals several weeks ago. Also, if there
are anyone using the 5000 out there, please comment upon the
unit. And most importantly, could someone tell me the price of
this nifty unit????---since our too-friendly salesman just sent us this
demo unit(on loan of course!) by saying, "keep it!" :-D I'll
have the more technical review in a few days. Later,

--Shin--


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