That's a beautiful old scope setup. I have a friend who collects this stuff but he is very low budget and on the opposite side of the country like me.
Marc On Tue, Dec 11, 2018 at 6:15 AM Paul Koning via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On Dec 11, 2018, at 7:59 AM, Toby Thain via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On 2018-12-11 1:17 AM, devin davison via cctalk wrote: > >> The line about being used with an early computer as a display caught my > >> eye. How would it be used as a display, what kind of graphics capability > >> would it have? is there an interface for the thing for the pdp 11 or a > >> modcomp? Those are the old systems i have on hand that i might be able > to > >> interface to it. > > > > A scope is at heart an electrostatic CRT with X and Y deflection (and > > perhaps Z axis blanking control). Many older systems did have such > > displays -- the PDP-1 is a well known example (e.g. see Marc and Lyle's > > CHM demo on YT[1]). Imlac PDS-1 is another. And before _digital_ > > systems, scopes or X-Y displays were a typical output medium for > > _analog_ computers. > > > > For digital computers, output is point plotting, vector drawing, and/or > > character generation depending on the sophistication (= cost) of the > > hardware involved. You'd also need to find or write suitable software :) > > > > Yes, there were interface cards for PDP-11, such as AA11 (dual DACs). > > I made such a setup in college: we had an 11/20 with AA11 (and other lab > I/O gear). I hooked those up to the X/Y inputs of a scope, and a digital > I/O line to the Z input. Then loaded coordinate pairs into a buffer on the > RC11 disk, which was set up to do DMA directly to the AA11 data CSR. > Worked nicely, and with low overhead on a machine that certainly could not > afford to do refresh in software. > > The classic example of a computer display like that is the CDC 6000 > mainframe console. That is essentially a pair of oversized oscilloscopes > (with electrostatic deflection), with their X/Y inputs driven by a > dedicated display controller that includes a vector character generator. > > paul > > >