4 ms·
I did use the screen a bit, it was connected to the unibus interface (which provides memory access) to read vector data straight out of the PDP-11's memory. On
by sliken 1y ago
I did use the screen a bit, it was connected to the unibus interface (which provides memory access) to read vector data straight out of the PDP-11's memory. One oddity of the vector screen is that if you drew long diagonal lines from A to B then B to A they wouldn't overlap perfectly, I believe the earth's magnetic field made a small difference.
My memory of the original star wars was that the schematic and targeting computer was pretty crude. The graphics wonder/GDP/2A Graphics Display processor display was accurate enough for quite small fonts. The fonts did look vectorized, and I believe the end points of each line were slightly brighter. The tube display was very deep to allow the magnetic fields to have high slew rates.
I'll have to take a look again at star wars to double check, but I don't think so based on memory.