Grinnell TV system

[larsbrinkhoff]

Notes about the Plasma Physics TV system using Grinnell framebuffers.

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From TGQ; GLS AIMAIL:

MSG: DISPLA 1
MACRAK@MIT-MC 10/27/76 14:26:53 Re: Demonstration of Grinnell TV system.
On Friday, October 29th from 10-3:30 Media Systems,
139 First Street, East Cambridge, will have an open
house.  They will have an operating Grinnell GMR-26
Knight-like TV display.  Metzler, Grinnell's president,
will be there.  The Grinnell has hardware character
and vector generation and is quite fast and reasonably
priced.  Coffee and doughnuts.

[larsbrinkhoff]

https://saildart.org/GRINNE.HIS[DOC,HE]
https://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/1981/03/01667293.pdf

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JLK@MIT-MC 05/16/77 18:07:06 Re: System programming JOB with the E.E. Plasma Group
The E.E. Plasma Group is looking for a full-time system programmer
(for a minimum term of 1 year) to develop and maintain our remote
terminal system (consisting of Tektronices, an IMLAC PDS-4, a Grinnell
TV system with Meta keyboards, and a GOULD electrostatic graphics printer).
These terminals are connected to a PDP-11 which is tied to the MC ITS
machine by a twisted pair cable.

[larsbrinkhoff]

for those of you that don't know about Grinnell, they are a spin off from
Ramtek about 4 years ago.  The controller box has hardware char, vector,
rectangle, reverse video, etc.  It doesn't have XOR write, which is somewhat
painful.  The system we have uses a slightly improved version of the font
on the AI TV's, and gets 51. lines by 85 characters.  512. X 512. point
graphics

[larsbrinkhoff]

GLPT; R11MUX 92 has some interesting code.

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HUMOR; GATEWY INSTRS

        Since most of you have never heard of the Plasma
Terminal System, this could probably use some explanation.

        This system (known to its users as PLASMA) is a
PDP-11 handling a Grinnell Display system, 8 keyboards, and
the Gould electrostatic printer. It's located in Building
38, on the second floor. Its purpose is to support 8
terminals timesharing thru it onto MC, AI, or (through
those) other machines, along with the Gould, over the
CHAOSnet (ETHERNET hardware, designed at Xerox's Palo Alto
Research Center -- about 50 times as fast as the ARPA net,
or comparable in speed to magtape).

        The software for this system is still in  state of
flux to some extent, and it's become slightly notorious for
dying (and losing any connections to and from it)
periodically.  In order to enable just about anyone to
restore it to working condition (at least temporarily), I
wrote CHSGTV;RELOAD INSTRS, which gives a full step-by-step
account of how to do so.

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RTTY11; RTTY TYPES

TTYs connected from Bldg. 38:
T16     - 40kb line (currently always has an Imlac connected to it.
          Default parameters are for SIMLAC.  Can be recycled after
          the CAIOS net is up and stable.)
T17     - 40kb multiplexor line.  Used from I.T.S. for loading the
          PDP-11.  Will remain as a backup line after the CAIOS net
          net is up.  Default parameters should be printing with
          with -%TPCBS - i.e. no allocation hackery, no padding..
          (there should be a super basic raw tty type for these
           applications!)


Remote multiplexed ttys from Bldg. 38:

Multiplexor     I.T.S.                  Description             TYPE
index           TTY
----------      ------                  -----------             ----
    0            T23            GOULD graphic lineprinter       GLDLPT
    1            T24            Tektronix, 38-246               STEK
    2            T25            Tektronix, 26-215               STEK
    3            T26            Imlac PDS-4, 38-246             SIMLAC
    4            T27            Ann Arbor Display (VT52)        SVT52
    5            T30            TV-1 (Plasma Display)           SRTV
    6            T31            TV-2 (Grinnell TV memory 1)     SRTV
    7            T32            TV-3 (Grinnell TV memory 2)     SRTV
   10            T33            TV-4 (Grinnell TV memory 3)     SRTV
   11            T34            TV-5 (Grinnell TV memory 4)     SRTV
   12            T35            spare                           SRTV
   13            T36            spare                           SRTV
   14            T37            Remote PDP-11 Dialup line       SVT52

TCTYP, TTYOPT info:
All multiplexed ttys should have +%TPCBS and +%TPORS
(TTYINT bit??)

GLDLpT  -  printing (most basic type of terminal, whatever that is).
           Not a software tty - gains efficiency with 8-bit output.
           May not be a tty at all when CAIOS reigns.

SRTV    -  Software Remote TV type terminal.
           TCTYP - software, 85. wide by 46. high.
           (for 512 x 512 type screens with A.I. TV fonts
            - includes the plasma display, which is functionally like
           a TV).  Should have all SIMLAC TTYOPT bits except %TOIML.
           i.e. DISPLAY, UPPER/LOWER, ERASEABLE, +%TOFCI, etc.

STEK    - Software tektronix.  Just like TEK but a software tty and
          +%TOFCI (it has a winning keyboard!) - i.e. DISPLAy,
          NOERASABLE, UPPER/LOWER, etc.

SVT52   - Software VT52.  Just like a VT52 but a software tty and
          +%TOFCI.

[larsbrinkhoff]

RTTY11; ST11 83

        .title LSI-11 ITS Terminal program
; a super simple compact version with no control structure hair (hopefully)
; but display support for an Ann Arbor display (including insert/delete line).

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MC terminals in Building 38, December 1977. As per TTYTYP 132.

                                        ;T26 38-244 Imlac PDS4
        TTDIML 26,SPEED=40K,ISPEED=40K,VER=50.,TO=%TOSAI+%TOFCI,TP=%TPORS,ROL=1
        TTD11 27,SPEED=40K              ;T27 38-244 PDP11
        TTDLPT 32,TP=%TPCBS             ;T32 38-246 Gould Printer
        TTDTEK 33,SPEED=4800,TCT=%TNSFW,TP=%TPCBS+%TPORS,TO=%TOFCI      ;T33 38-246 Tektronix
        TTDVT 35,TCT=%TNSFW,TP=%TPCBS+%TPORS,TO=%TOFCI  ;T35 38-246 Ann Arbor
        TTDVT 36,TCT=%TNSFW,TP=%TPCBS+%TPORS,TO=%TOFCI  ;T36 38-246 Ann Arbor
        TTDGRN 37                               ;T37 38-246 TV #1
        TTDGRN 40                               ;T40 38-246 TV #2
        TTDGRN 41                               ;T41 38-246 TV #3
        TTDGRN 42                               ;T42 38-246 TV #4
        TTDGRN 43                               ;T43 38-246 TV #5
        TTDPRT 44                               ;T44 38-244 PDP-11 Debugging TTY

This was roughly the same in November 1976 (TTYTYP 111). But in January 1976 (TTYTYP 66) there was only this:

        TTDTEK 16,9600,9600             ;T16 38-244 Tek4010
        TTDIML 17,80K,,50.              ;T17 38-244 Imlac PDS4

[larsbrinkhoff]

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a086098.pdf