"Network planning and control specialists smoothly integrated an average of two new nodes per week as monthly data flow through the Tymnet network climbed above 12 billion characters in 1978."
https://archive.org/details/TNM_Tymshare_Inc_1978_Annual_Report_20171030_0083
She's using a Tektronix vector graphics terminal, one of the most beautiful display devices. #teapot
@qrs Woah, I didn't know Tektronix made computer terminals.
Real xterms support a "Tektronix mode" where you can feed them vector data. Every single alternative dropped support for it.
I grew up with one of these terminals. They're "storage tubes". CRT displays shoot a beam that eventually covers the entire visible display and repeat it very quickly. These don't work that way. The beam can be moved around, and the tube has to hold on to the image as long as possible.
An unfortunate side effect is that these screens are very, very dark.
I'm not surprised that analog storage oscilloscopes existed. The Tektronix terminal may have been a novel combination of features, but the underlying technology needed to come from somewhere.
But, yeah, it's why the professionally photographed image of the person using the Tektronix terminal is so dark. It is really cool, and was definitely more cool it its heyday, but you couldn't really get bright photos of it in use.
It was 1024x780 in the 70s without the need for expensive RAM.
In 1982 the Hercules video cards came on the market and could do 720x348, a fraction of what you could do with the Tek 4010.
Tektronix tried to adapt with the 4014 having support for an "Enhanced Graphic Module" which supported a resolution of 4096x3071. (A resolution only the newest raster displays support.)
They put their eggs in the wrong basket, leaning in to stuff you can't do with standard displays.
@Felthry @qrs
A scope is not a storage tube. The image on the screen is effectively printed to the display. The display will flash when it is refreshed, as every spot needs to be written to so that it can all settle back at the same luminance.
It's more like a cholesterol/eInk display, except that it glows.