Computer Graphics/Imaging Display Hardware History - Misc. Notes
Please send me e-mail with
additional info,
links, photos, corrections, etc.- my memory is fuzzy!
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!
Last update - 24 July 2023
BACK TO THE MAIN GRAPHICS HISTORY PAGE
So far I have concentrated on U.S. development simply because I am most
familiar with it.
Please send links or info on early development work and products elsewhere.
My rough criterion for "Early" is that the device was external to a
computer - no workstation or PC plug-in boards.
Roughly restricted to pre-1985
or so.
I've also stuck to systems that a user could program from a host
computer.
I have omitted display systems that were "closed", e.g.
- graphics/imaging display hardware embedded in a medical imaging system
- graphics/imaging display hardware embedded in a CAD system - Applicon,
Computervision, etc. - See this CAD history
for some info
- graphics/imaging display hardware embedded in a TV graphics system (Dubner,
Chyron)
- ..... unless this somehow led into other systems (e.g. Ampex AVA developers led to
Pixar Image Computer).
- Hey, it is my page so I get to make arbitrary
decisions.....but I'm easily persuaded.
Early Research Lab Raster Display Systems
-
1964 - Univ. of Illinois (Don Bitzer, H. Gene Slottow, and Robert Willson)
- PLATO Plasma Panel Display -
- Wikipedia
- D. L. Bitzer and H. G. Slottow. 1966. The plasma display panel: a
digitally addressable display with inherent memory. In Proceedings of
the November 7-10, 1966, fall joint computer conference (AFIPS '66
(Fall)). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 541-547. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1464291.1464349
- PDF
-
1968 - Univ. of Illinois (William J. Kubitz, W.J. Poppelbaum) - Tri-Color
Cartograph analog disk- based system
-
1969 - Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) - TDMS (Television Monitor
Display System) disk-based displays
-
1971 - Bell Labs (Michael
Noll) - raster display from computer's core memory via DMA
- 1972 - NC State Univ. (Jeff Eastman, Dave Wooten, Glen Williamson) - video
disk frame buffer with run-length encoded FIFO as interface
- 1972 - Univ. of Utah (Gary Watkins) - "Watkins Box" display
processor
- 1973 - Xerox PARC (Dick Shoup) - SuperPaint - shift register based frame
buffer with run-length encoded FIFO as interface
- 1974 - Univ of Missouri-Columbia - shift register based frame buffer
- 1974 - Exxon raster display (electrostatic storage?)
- 1975 - NASA Goddard (James Billingsley) - AIOPS raster display system (GE
Image 100, Hazeltine)
-
1977 - NC State Univ. (Nick England) - frame buffer (16K DRAM) with 32-bit
programmable processor (AMD 2901)
- 1978 - Ohio State Univ. (Marc Howard) - custom frame buffer built using
Ikonas memory boards
- later versions designed/built by Marc at Cranston/Csuri Productions
- 1981-85 - Univ. of North Carolina (Henry Fuchs, John Poulton, John Eyles, et.
al.) - PixelPlanes - raster array of processors plus linear expression
evaluator
- Fuchs, H., and Poulton, J., "PIXEL-PLANES A VLSI-Oriented
Design for a Raster Graphics Engine," VLSI Design (formerly Lambda
- The Magazine of VLSI Design), Third quarter, 1981, pp 20-28.
- Fuchs, H., Poulton, J., Paeth, A., and Bell, A., "Developing
Pixel-planes, a Smart Memory-Based Raster Graphics System,"
Proceedings of Conference on Advanced Research in VLSI, January 25-27,
1982, pp 137-146.
- Poulton, J., Fuchs, H., Austin, J., Eyles, J., Heinecke, J., Hsieh,
C-H, Goldfeather, J., Hultquist, J., and Spach, S., "PIXEL-PLANES:
Building a VLSI-Based Graphic System," Proceedings of Conference on
Advanced Research in VLSI, May 15-17, 1985, pp 35-60
- Fuchs, H., Goldfeather, J., Hultquist, J., Spach, S., Austin, J.,
Brooks, F., Eyles, J., and Poulton, J., "Fast Spheres, Shadows,
Textures, Transparencies, and Image Enhancements in Pixel-Planes,"
Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH '85 Conference Proceedings), Vol. 19, No. 3,
July, 1985, pp 111-120. - reference
Early Commercial Raster & Vector Display Systems
1977 SIGGRAPH Exhibitors List
- I need more years.
Adage Inc - Billerica MA
- Founded 1957? by Tom Hagen, Luis Schaefer, Richard Nixon ??
- 1964? Ambilog 200 - 30 bit computer with 2D Vector Display - photo
- 1965 advertisement
- 1966 article -
Thomas G. Hagan and Robert Treiber. 1966. Hybrid analog/digital techniques for signal processing applications. In
Proceedings of the April 26-28, 1966, Spring joint computer conference
(AFIPS '66 (Spring)). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 379-388. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1464182.1464228
- People - Tom Hagen, Robert Treiber, Buck Crowley, Henry Kerr, Sol Mac,
Nathan Sokol,
- 1968? Adage Graphics Terminal (AGT-30) - 30 bit computer with 3D Vector Display
- brochures & manuals
- Mystery
photos - where were these taken?
- 1968
article - Thomas G. Hagan, Richard J. Nixon, and Luis J. Schaefer.
1968. "The adage graphics terminal." In Proceedings of the December
9-11, 1968, fall joint computer conference, part I (AFIPS '68
(Fall, part I)). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 747-755. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1476589.1476685
- 1971
article - van Dam A., Bergeron R.D. (1971) "Software
Capabilities of the Adage Graphics Terminals." In: Parslow R.D.,
Green R.E. (eds) Advanced Computer Graphics. Springer, Boston, MA
- photos/videos
- 1978 - Adage 4100 series vector displays - news
article
- 1978 - Adage 4250 - vector display compatible with IBM 3250 - 1980
brochure , 1982
brochure
- 1982 - Adage 3000 raster display system
(was Ikonas RDS 3000) - Adage acquired Ikonas Graphics
- 1985 - Adage 6080 - raster display compatible with IBM 5080 - brochure
- Advertisements and Data Sheets
- search for "Adage"
ADI (Applied Dynamics Inc) - Ann Arbor, MI
- Light-50 raster graphics system (developed by Child Inc.)
AED (Advanced Electronic Design) - Sunnyvale CA
Ampex - Redwood City CA
- 1979 AVA - developers - Rodney Stock, Ken
Turkowski, Tom Porter
- reference
AT&T Pixel Machines - Holmdel NJ
Aurora Systems
- Founded 1980 by Dick Shoup and Damon Rarey
- Xerox PARC spinoff
Aydin Controls - Port Washington PA
- founded ? by ?
- developed raster graphics systems
- 1970 advertisement
CDC (Control Data Corp) - Minneapolis MN
Child Inc - Overland Park KS
- founded mid-1970s by Mike Fischer, Geoff Roper, Bob Nunley, Cynthia Perry,
and Gary Minden
- developed raster graphics systems licensed to ISI, Genisco, and ADI
Computer Displays Inc - Waltham MA
- founded 1965? by ?
- spinoff from MIT Project MAC
- acquired by Adage 1970?
- ARDS graphics terminal using Tektronix storage tube
- 1970 advertisement
- manuals
Computer Image Corp - Denver CO
Computer Video Corporation - Columbus OH
- founded 1984? by Tim Van Hook and Allan Meyers
- Prototype raster graphics system only
Comtal Inc. - Arcadia CA
Data Disc Corp. - Sunnyvale CA
- founded ? by ?
- Developed magnetic disk based frame buffer
- De Anza, Ramtek, and Grinnell were spinoffs
- 1972 data sheet
De Anza Systems Inc - Santa Clara CA
- founded 1976 by Wayne Hepler and Chuck Masters (previously at Ramtek and Data Disc)
- spinoff from Ramtek
- acquired 1981 by Gould Inc. for $26M
- developed raster display Image Processing systems
DEC (Digital Equipment Corp) - Maynard MA
Digitech Inc - Raleigh NC
- founded 1975 by John Staudhammer
- spinoff from NC State (John Staudhammer, Ed Tripp, Marc Howard, Phil
Frankenstein)
- built only two systems
- 512x512x8 frame buffer for Univ. of Miami (FL)
- Run-length encoded multi-frame animation system for Ohio State Univ
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp - Salt Lake City UT - wikipedia
- founded 1968 by Dave Evans and Ivan Sutherland
- Spinoff of University of Utah computer graphics lab - 1970
research report
- 1969 - LDS-1 Line Drawing System - Vector Display - wikipedia
- 1970 advertisement
- 1974 - Frame Buffer -
J. Kajiya, I. Sutherland, E. Cheadle, A Random-Access Video Frame Buffer, Proc.
Conference on Computer Graphics, Pattern Recognition and Data Structure,
1975.
- 1970s - Picture System PS-1, PS-2, PS-300 - 3D vector display terminals
- 1970s - flight simulator display systems
- documents
GE (General Electric Space Division) - Daytona Beach FL
- 1973? - Image 100 (GE 100) Multispectral Image Analysis System
- Graphicon - see below
Genisco Computers (Genisco Technology Corp) - Irvine CA
- founded ? by ?
- developed raster graphics systems
- 1979
ad
- 1981 also developed SpaceGraph 3D display (vibrating mirror) - brochure
Graphicon (later Star Technologies) - Research Triangle Park, NC
- spinoff from GE Silicon Systems Technology Division (SSTD)
- 1986 - Graphicon 700 - press
release and photo
- developers - Henry Rich, Michael Jones, Gloria Tierney, Dave Orton
Grinnell Systems - San Jose CA
- founded by John Metzler - spinoff from Data Disc?
- people - Chris Odgers, Mike Kaplan, Jeff Mock(?)
- acquired by Gulton Industries in 1983, later sold to 3M Corp.
- developed raster display image processing systems
- 3/81
ad, 9/84
ad
IBM (International Business Machines) - Armonk NY
- 1964 - 2250 Vector Display Terminal - brochure
- 1977 - 3250 Vector Display Terminal - made by Sanders for IBM - announcement
- 1983 - 5080 Raster Display Terminal - made by Sanders for IBM
- MCAD
history that includes IBM display info starting on page 13-8
Ikonas Graphics - Raleigh NC
Imlac - Waltham MA
Information Displays, Inc. - Mt Kisko, Mt Vernon NY
- founded 1960 by Carl Machover, Ken King, Al Vollendweider (was RMS
Associates)
- 1960s - vector display system - IDIIOM (IDI Input-Output Machine).
- Don Bissell. 1998. Was the IDIIOM the First
Stand-Alone CAD Platform?. IEEE Ann. Hist. Comput. 20, 2 (April
1998), 14-19. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/85.667292 - PDF
Intel - Santa Clara CA
- made some early memory boards intended for frame buffer use - any info?
International Imaging Systems (I2S) - Milpitas/Sunnyvale CA
-
founded ? by ?
-
developers Cliff Reader, John Adams
-
1976 - Model 70 Image Computer can
provide up to 12 512 x 512 x 8 images. A hardware split screen feature
allows an arbitrary window on a 2048 x 1536 (x 8 bit) virtual memory. 8
graphic overlay planes are provided. Only the overlay planes are
color-mapped; the 8-bit in, 16-bit out Color Assignment Function Memory
provides 5 output bits for each color channel, with the 16th bit selecting
the mode for combining graphic data with image memory: additive or overlay
(replace). The cursor is programmable, 64 x 64 pixels.
ISI (Interpretation Systems Inc) - Overland Park KS
- founded 1972(?) in Lawrence KS by George Dalke and Mike Buchanan
- University of Kansas spinoff
- acquired 1981 by LogEtronics (Springfield VA) => became LogE/ISI
- history - 1972
newspaper article
- history - 1973
newspaper article
- developed raster display image processing system
- VP-8 video processor used to examine Shroud of Turin - 1981
- Child designed some early equipment for ISI
- A 24-bit frame buffer (built for Lawrence Livermore National Labs) was
exhibited at SIGGRAPH 77
Jupiter Systems Inc. - Berkeley CA
- founded 1980-81 by Jack
Klingelhofer, Pete Harris, Eric Wogsberg, Jon Peddie
- developed Jupiter 7, Jupiter 12 raster graphics terminals
- brochures
Lexidata - Billerica MA
Lundy - Paramus NJ
- founded ? by ?
- developed vector display systems
- manuals
Megatek - San Diego CA
Pixar - San Rafael CA
- 1984 - Pixar Image Computer - designed by Tom Porter, Rodney Stock, and Adam Levinthal
- wikipedia
- brochure
- photos
- article
- CHAP processor - reference
- Computer Graphics, Volume 18, Number 3 July 1984
Ramtek Corp - Santa Clara CA
- founded 1971 by Chuck McEwan and Chuck Masters (both previously at Data
Disc) and Tom Adams
- spinoff from Data Disk
- developed raster graphics systems
- produced arcade video games 1973-78 - story
- Ramtek 9400 brochure
- manuals
Raster Graphics - Tigard OR
Raster Technologies - Billerica MA
- founded 1981 by Lou Doctor and Jay Torborg
- spinoff from RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) - article
- developed Model One raster display system - brochure
- manuals
Sanders Associates - Nashua NH
Seillac Co. Ltd. - Tokyo
- founded 1981 by Tsuneo Ikedo
- Seillac-7 introduced in 1984 (but actual production is unclear to me)
- raster display system featuring very high speed anti-aliased line drawing
- advertisement
- T. Ikedo, "High-Speed Techniques for a 3-D Color Graphics
Terminal," in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 4,
no. 5, pp. 46-58, May 1984. doi: 10.1109/MCG.1984.276176 - reference
Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) - Mountain View CA - wikipedia
- founded 1982 by Jim Clark et. al.
- spinoff from Stanford
- SGI History article
- developed IRIS raster graphics systems based on Geometry Engine custom
chips
- manuals
Spatial Data Systems - Goleta CA
- founded 1971? by ?
- developed raster display image processing system
- 1971 report by Ralph Ahearn & Dave Rutland - A digital picture
processing system for extracting information from photographic film records
was constructed and delivered. The system uses a Digital Video Converter
that permits picture data transfer and display between a Digital Processor
and a standard 525 line Television System. The Digital Processor has an 8000
word core memory and a Digital Tape Unit for storage and processing of
digitized pictures. The Digital Video Converter stores a complete digital
picture consisting of 384 x 489 picture elements on a magnetic disc. The
picture elements, each having one of 256 possible shades of grey, are
refreshed at standard television rates and are displayed in black and white
on a television monitor or analyzed in a color television densitometer
display. Television pictures of photographic transparencies are produced
from a precision camera, digitized at an 8 MHz sampling rate and recorded on
the disc for subsequent analysis by the Data Processor. Software for
self-checking the system, transferring picture data and digitizing pictures
was supplied with the equipment.
- acquired 1981 by LogEtronics (Springfield VA)
Spectragraphics - San Diego
- founded in 1981 by Kevin Kinsella and Bob Blumberg
- 1982 - System 1250 raster display terminal compatible with IBM 3250
- 1984 - System 1500 raster display terminal compatible with IBM 5080
- advertisement
Tektronix - Beaverton OR
Trancept Systems Inc - Raleigh NC
Vector General - Canoga Park CA
- founded 1969 by Ken Anderson
- manuals
Vectrix - Greensboro NC
- founded 1980 by Richard Katz
- 1983 - VX128, VX384 raster display system based on NEC 7220GDC
- developer - Mike King (ex-Ikonas)
- manuals etc.
Vicom Systems
- founded 1981 by William K Pratt
- USC Image Processing Institute spinoff
- developed raster display image processing system - article
Videographics - Berkeley CA
- founded by Jack Klingelhofer and Pete Harris
- developed raster graphics terminals
- licensed design to AED - they later founded Jupiter Systems
Early Flight Simulator Image Generator Systems
- 1980 Survey of Simulator Image Generator Architectures - PDF
- 1995 Bibliography ( Carl Mueller) - http://www.cs.unc.edu/
techreports/95-015/FS_Bib_v1.
pdf
- 1995 "Flight Simulator Visual System Research and Development - A
Comprehensive Bibliography" (Harold D Warner) - PDF
- 1981 Bruce Schachter, "Computer Image Generation for Flight Simulation", IEEE
Computer Graphics and Applications, ( IEEE CG&A) vol.1, no. 4, pp. 29-68,
October-December 1981 - reference
- 1983 Bruce Schachter - "Computer Image Generation" (excellent
historical review)
http://www.amazon.com/
Computer-Image-Generation-
Bruce-Schachter/dp/0471872873/
- 1985 Johnson K. Yan (Singer Co., Link FS Div.), "Advances in
Computer-Generated Imagery for Flight Simulation", IEEE CG&A, August 1985, pp. 37-51.
reference
-
1985 Doenges, Peter K. (Evans and Sutherland), "High
Performance Image Generation Systems: Overview of Computer Image
Generation in Visual Simulation", Course notes for course #14 (High
Performance Image Generation Systems), ACM SIGGRAPH '85, July 22, 1985.
- "Real Time Graphics" newsletter (Roy Latham)
- IMAGE conference proceedings
- I/ITSEC conference proceedings
Additional Resources
Some other computer graphics/imaging history references - in no particular order.
Not necessarily
strictly about hardware and some are games/fx/animation-centric
- IEEE Tutorial: Computer Graphics Hardware : Image Generation and Display
1988, Hassan K. Reghbati, Anson Y. C. Lee, IEEE Computer Society Press - amazon
-
- 1966 Computer Display Review - Adams Associates - PDF
- 1970 Computer Display Review - Adams Associates - PDF
- 1976 Image Processing System Survey
(C.L. Patterson, Aerospace Corp.)
- 1976 Taxonomy of Display Processors - reference
- 1980 Graphics System Survey (
Pete Atherton, GE)
- David Weisberg's CAD history that includes lots
of info on early computer graphics history
-
- Carl Machover collection at Charles Babbage Institute - see Exploring
The Archives on page 13
- Carl Machover (1967) "Graphic CRT Terminals: Characteristics of
Commonly Available Equipment"- PDF
- reference
- Carl Machover (1968) "State of the Computer Graphics Art in the
United States" - PDF
- Carl Machover (1969) Computer Graphics in the United States. In: Parslow
R.D., Prowse R.W., Green R.E. (eds) Computer Graphics. Springer, Boston, MA reference
- Carl Machover (1972) "Computer Graphics Terminals - A Backward
Look" - PDF
- reference
- Carl Machover (1986) A New Generation of Hardware. In: Enderle G., Grave M.,
Lillehagen F. (eds) Advances in Computer Graphics I. EurographicSeminars
(Tutorials and Perspectives in Computer Graphics). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg - reference
- Carl Machover "A Brief Personal History of Computer Graphics"
http://excelsior.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~carlson/history/PDFs/machover.pdf
- Carl Machover interview - transcript
-
- Wayne Carlson (OSU) review of hardware
http://excelsior.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~carlson/history/lesson15.html
- Wayne Carlson History Course
http://excelsior.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~carlson/history/
- Jon Peddie - "History of Visual Magic in Computers" -
(games/animation-centric)
http://www.amazon.com/History-Visual-Magic-Computers-Beautiful/dp/1447149319
- Terrence Masson "CG 101, A Computer Graphics Industry Reference"
- (fx/art/animation-centric)
(chapter 8 - historically significant companies) http://www.cg101.com/cg101.com.html
- Alvy Ray Smith - A
Biography of the Pixel
-
- Norman I. Badler and Ingrid Carlbom, "The Computer
Graphics Scene in the United States", EUROGRAPHICS '84. Proceedings
of the European Graphics Conference and Exhibition , 185-200. September
1985. - pdf
- Badler N.I., Carlbom I. (1986) Overview of Raster Graphics Hardware. In:
Enderle G., Grave M., Lillehagen F. (eds) Advances in Computer Graphics I.
EurographicSeminars (Tutorials and Perspectives in Computer Graphics).
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg - reference
- W. Myers, "Staking Out the Graphics Display Pipeline," in IEEE
Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 60-65, July
1984.
doi: 10.1109/MCG.1984.275904 - reference
- W. M. Newman, Trends in Graphic Display Design, IEEE Transactions on
Computers, v.25 n.12, p.1321-1325, December 1976 - reference
- Henry Fuchs, VLSI in Graphics Systems - PDF
- 1969 "Selected Bibliography of On-Line Visual Displays and Their
Applications" - PDF
-
- Nelson H. F.
Beebe's Bibliographies of many graphics magazines and journals
-
- "S Klein Computer Graphics Newsletter" (Stanley Klein)
- "The Anderson Report" - newsletter (Ken Anderson)
- "Real Time Graphics" newsletter (Roy Latham)
- IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications magazine
- SPIE conferences on Image Processing Systems
- Many cardboard boxes of stuff I have in storage!
Note - get access to SIGGRAPH publications in the ACM Digital Library by joining
SIGGRAPH
