3 ms·

This sounds like (atleast at my very basic understanding) a similar concept to e-ink displays where content will stay displayed (for the most part) until otherw

This sounds like (atleast at my very basic understanding) a similar concept to e-ink displays where content will stay displayed (for the most part) until otherwise overwritten

xattt 4y ago
There were Tektronics storage tubes which did this with electron guns with variable power (one current for creating a raster image, another for creating a persistent image on the phosphor). The thing that is novel to me in a Skiatron is that the electron beam manipulates something physical (i.e. the crystal structure of the KI used on the screen) in order to create the image on the tube. Taking physical object manipulation via electron gun to the extreme (ie a spinning disc of oil in a vacuum), you get the eidophor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor
- rbanffy 4y ago
  > creating a raster image They excelled at vector. IIRC, the 4014 could address 4096x4096 coordinates but even between two points, the “resolution” was that of the phosphor grain. This is something we should resurrect.
  - labcomputer 4y ago
    > This is something we should resurrect. The problem with storage tube CRTs is erasure--more specifically that you can't erase arbitrary parts of the screen. With bi-stable tubes (like the kind found in the 4014), you can erase the entire screen. Some bi-stable tubes (as found on certain Tek oscilloscopes) also allow erasing predefined regions, like the top half or bottom half. Those are in, some sense, two storage tube mechanisms in one glass envelope. But there's no way to erase just one line, and the entire screen flashes brightly when you do erase the image. It makes viewing any kind of animation or moving image very annoying. They were fine back when computers didn't have enough memory to hold a 4k by 4k framebuffer because the computer didn't have enough CPU to draw enough FPS for smooth animations anyway--so users couldn't expect continuous movement of the rendered image. Notice how the image builds up gradually over time, as the host sends drawing commands to the terminal, but the image never moves once drawn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IztxeoHhoyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IztxeoHhoyM

This sounds like (atleast at my very basic understanding) a similar concept to e-ink displays where content will stay displayed (for the most part) until otherwise overwritten

xattt 4y ago

There were Tektronics storage tubes which did this with electron guns with variable power (one current for creating a raster image, another for creating a persistent image on the phosphor). The thing that is novel to me in a Skiatron is that the electron beam manipulates something physical (i.e. the crystal structure of the KI used on the screen) in order to create the image on the tube. Taking physical object manipulation via electron gun to the extreme (ie a spinning disc of oil in a vacuum), you get the eidophor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor

rbanffy 4y ago
> creating a raster image They excelled at vector. IIRC, the 4014 could address 4096x4096 coordinates but even between two points, the “resolution” was that of the phosphor grain. This is something we should resurrect.
- labcomputer 4y ago
  > This is something we should resurrect. The problem with storage tube CRTs is erasure--more specifically that you can't erase arbitrary parts of the screen. With bi-stable tubes (like the kind found in the 4014), you can erase the entire screen. Some bi-stable tubes (as found on certain Tek oscilloscopes) also allow erasing predefined regions, like the top half or bottom half. Those are in, some sense, two storage tube mechanisms in one glass envelope. But there's no way to erase just one line, and the entire screen flashes brightly when you do erase the image. It makes viewing any kind of animation or moving image very annoying. They were fine back when computers didn't have enough memory to hold a 4k by 4k framebuffer because the computer didn't have enough CPU to draw enough FPS for smooth animations anyway--so users couldn't expect continuous movement of the rendered image. Notice how the image builds up gradually over time, as the host sends drawing commands to the terminal, but the image never moves once drawn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IztxeoHhoyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IztxeoHhoyM