DEC GT40 is a VT11 vector graphic terminal and general-purpose computer produced by the

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...

, first introduced in October, 1972 (selling for “under $11,000”).IEEE Computer, 5(6), Nov. 1972, pp. 61–62
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Description

The DEC GT40 consists of: 090509 brouhaha.com * CPU: KD11-B (

PDP-11 The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of a ...

/10) * VT11 display processor, including bootstrap ROM (same modules as VT11, but instead of the four-slot backplane, this has a nine-slot backplane to include the CPU and memory) * MM11-L 8K word core memory (MM11-K 4K word core memory on GT40-Bx models) * DL11-E asynchronous line interface * LK40 keyboard * VR14-LC X-Y monitor (or -LD for 230 V) * 375

light pen A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a to ...

Because the GT40 contained a PDP-11 class computer, the terminal could also serve as a computer in its own right, IEEE Computer wrote:

The GT40 may be used either as a stand-alone graphics system or as a remote terminal interacting with various types of host computers. John Mucci, marketing manager for the DEC graphic-11 group, sees the GT40 being particularly useful in the areas of graphic research, design, engineering, architecture business information systems and many other uses needing a fast, low-cost graphics display. In a stand-alone configuration, the PDP-11/10 within the terminal can be expanded with additional memory and any PDP-11 family peripheral to build as complex a system as necessary. “In fact, the central processor used in the GT-40 can be any PDP-11 family processor,” says Mucci, ”since the display processor is interfaced via the PDP-11's Unibus.”

Other models

Other versions, using different PDP-11 CPUs and/or video processors:

GT42

VT11 vector graphics terminal using a PDP-11/10.

GT44

VT11 vector graphics terminal using a PDP-11/40.

GT62

VS60 vector graphics workstation using a PDP-11/34a and VT48 graphics processor.

References

External links

brouhaha.com/~eric - VT11 instruction set
GT40 PDP-11 {{compu-hardware-stub