On 2022-Apr-01, at 10:52 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > On 4/1/22 10:27, Paul Koning wrote: >> >>> On Apr 1, 2022, at 1:25 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> Wasn't some of this glass delay line memory used in early raster-scanned >>> computer video displays? >> >> I don't know about that one, but a delay line is a key component of a PAL >> (European) system color TV receiver. > > I know that the CRT display controller on the CDC 200 series terminal > (INTERCOM, Export/Import 200 software) used a 10 msec magnetostrictive > delay line.for image storage. Glass would seem to be a more > mechanically robust storage medium. > > See:page 1-5 > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/cdc/terminal/82128000_200_User_Terminal_Hardware_Reference_Jul68.pdf > > Later raster terminals used MOS shift register memory. > > The STAR-100 stations used a track on the station microdrum for video > refresh.
CRT monitors would seem like a likely target application for them. Their higher speed may have worked to advantage to reduce the total memory requirement. The MOS-shif-register-memory displays typically had two R/W memories: a frame buffer and a character-line buffer, the line buffer captured one line of characters from the frame buffer as it cycled by, so it could be rescanned several times for the multiple H-scan lines forming a character. The higher speed of the glass memories perhaps would have eliminated the need for the line buffer.
