The History of Visual Magic in Computers by Jon Peddie

Author:Jon Peddie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer London, London

6.3 The First Generation – Graphics in a Vacuum (1940s–1960s)

The very first graphics controllers, which were slightly modified oscilloscope or vector scope controllers, made with vacuum tubes or “valves”. Those systems, discussed in the Chap. 7, and the controllers were for all intents purposes indistinguishable from the display itself since the controller(s), power-supply, and the actual display device itself (a CRT); originally packaged all together.

The original controllers managed not only the intensity of the CRT’s beam but also the location of the beam on the screen. The first generation of display controllers was completely analog and manipulated the images by varying a voltage level. The precision they could vary the voltage determined the screens resolution and display intensities.

With the introduction of the ENIAC digital computer in 1945 at the University of Pennsylvania, the Whirlwind digital computer developed at MIT in 1945 would end up in the SAGE system. That was a due to Perry Crawford after seeing a demonstration of ENIAC, suggesting to Whirlwind’s project manager, Jay Forrester that a digital computer was the solution for Navy flight simulator being developed at MIT. A key component of the Whirlwind computer (and sequentially SAGE) was its display system.

First demonstrated on April 20, 1951, the Whirlwind computer was the first digital computer capable of displaying real time text and graphics on a video terminal (Fig. 6.4).

Fig. 6.4The Whirlwind computer (reconstructed at the Boston Museum of Science) demonstrates the total integration of computer, display controller, and display. (copyright free, image released into the public domain by Daderot)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.