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From: drb@utcsri.UUCP (David R. Blythe)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: 5620 (blit) cartridge for the ST ?
Message-ID: <2622@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-Apr-86 03:10:52 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsri.2622
Posted: Wed Apr 23 03:10:52 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Apr-86 03:43:22 EST
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Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
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> 
> 
> I just read on att.blit that the University of Toronto has developed
> and is currently using a 5620(blit) terminal emulator in a ROM
> cartridge for the 520ST (mono).  Does anyone know if this is true?
> If this is cartridge exists I would like to buy one and I'm sure a
> lot of other people would too. Can anybody out there confirm or deny
> this??? I think a product like this would be a great boost to ST
> sales, I hope it makes it to the market place.
> 
> 						R.T. Bradstrum

Subject: Re: 5620 (blit) cartridge for the ST

    Yes, Dave Galloway and myself have ported the original 68000 Blit software
to the 520st. The software, for the most part, is the same as that in the Blit's
commercial successor, the 5620. For those of you unfamiliar with the Blit
software, this gives you a multi-tasking multi-window smart terminal interface
to Unix similar to the facilities offered on the Sun workstation (plus and
minus some features).
[For those interested in more details about the Blit, see Rob Pike's article
in the April 1983 issue of the ACM Transactions on Graphics, or the SIGGRAPH 83
conference proceedings].

    It was our hope to be able to use these converted atari's as cheap terminals
at the university. While the software was quite successfully ported*, the
project was somewhat of a failure for two reasons. The most important is that
the st keyboard is terrible (ATARI ARE YOU LISTENING?). The second reason is
that the screen is a bit small, particularly for multi-window use (although it
still beats the hell out of a dumb ascii terminal). On the other hand, I must
give credit to atari for the 70hz non-interlaced b/w screen, it is beautiful
compared to the 30hz interlaced green screen on the Blit and 5620!

    Anyway, we have a half dozen of these terminals in use by people at the
university (mostly me) under BSD 4.2 (impatiently waiting for 4.3 and its
accompanying OS window support) and we will live with them until somebody comes
out with some better hardware (or we build it ourselves). Unfortunately, all
of the software was derived from proprietary Bell software so we are not allowed
to distribute it to anybody unless you are appropriately licensed :-(.

*
In conclusion, for those of you already possessing Blit or 5620 software
interested in trying to get our software, I must also point out that
it is not just a matter of getting the ROMs. We have modified most of the Blit
terminal programs to remove the machine dependencies making them binary
compatible across both the atari and Blit (except for the main terminal
multiplexor). Therefore a complete 10 Meg (or so) distribution would be
necessary.
			:-( ... :-(

David Blythe
	    Computer Systems Research Institute    University of Toronto
	    Usenet:	{linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd, utzoo}!utcsri!drb
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