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From: mercury@ut-dillo.UUCP (Larry E. Baker)
Newsgroups: net.graphics
Subject: Re: IBM PC W/ Ethernet & Graphics?
Message-ID: <210@ut-dillo.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 1-Dec-85 11:47:30 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-dillo.210
Posted: Sun Dec  1 11:47:30 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Dec-85 07:28:18 EST
References: <331@geowhiz.UUCP> <196@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 37

[]

> >   We have been using Visual 500 terminals for a lot of our graphics
> > work here.  They are RS232 terminals with a single plane bitmap.  I'm
> > not very happy with this approach as RS232 is too slow.  However, they
> > are fairly inexpensive (i.e. under $2000).
> 
> If you haven't already, look into the Teletype 5620 DMD.
> It works over an RS-232 link but has its own 32-bit
> processor, mouse, and an 800x1024 bitmap.  In conjunction
> with its UNIX host software, this is a powerful interactive
> interface to the UNIX system.  It sells for around $3K to $4K,
> much less than a Sun.  (Although superficially similar, they
> take different approaches to UNIX bit-map graphics.)

This may sound somewhat passe, but if all you're looking for is a good
graphics terminal, and you're willing to put up with RS-232 even though it is
kind of slow, you *could* buy an Atari 520ST with a monochrome monitor for
list $799, write a relatively sophisticated terminal emulator, and have
a graphics "subsystem" cheaper than just about anything else I can think of.
You can do a lot with a 68000 and 512K of memory.

It should be possible to design a window environment similar (at least
superficially) to that offered by suntools.  I don't think its resolution
is quite as tight as the teletype, but from what I've seen of the machine
(there's a store here with a couple on display that I go play with every
now and then) it should be enough for most applications.

Hope this helps.

Larry

-- 

Larry Baker                          mercury@ut-ngp.{ARPA, UUCP, UTEXAS.EDU}
University of Texas at Austin        ut-sally!ut-ngp!mercury@csnet-relay.CSNET
Computer Science                     phgl774@uta3081.BITNET