AT&T 630 terminal - software ??

[Chris Calabrese[mav]]

In article <1467 at neoucom.UUCP>, wtm at neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) writes:
> 
> The 630 will probably ultimately be upstaged by the X protocol, but
> probably only in the sense that layers will disappear.  It should
> be feasible to download an X environment client to run on top of the
> firmware that is already in the 630.  AT&T could come out with new
> ROMs for the 630 to run X natively, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The 630 includes a ``game port'' for just such rom changes.
There was a rumour around here is that the X ``game cartridge'' is
at least being looked into, if not already in development, but
I haven't heard anything on it in a couple of months.

> The most difficult aspect of the 630 to duplicate on an IBM clone
> would be the physical display.  I don't know about all 630s, but
> the one we had came with a full page 66 line display with a
> resolution something like 720 * 1024 pixels (the exact number, I
> forget).  All of the IBM clone full page displays I've looked at
> are agonizingly slow at screen redraws; the 630 is not.

Yes, they all have the same display.  Also, I the display speed
is just a symptom of the fact that the 630 has a more powerful CPU
than the graphics card on an IBM clone.  The graphics cards for
IBM's have gotten very inexpensive, but noone ever accused them
of being overly fast in memory access or number crunching.

Finally, one of the great things about the 630 is that you
can download _compiled_ software to it over the serial port.
To do this with an IBM clone, you'd have to have it emulate the
mc68000 instruction set, which wouldn't exactly be an optimum
solution from a speed standpoint.

There's a reason these things cost more than a pc clone.
-- 
Name:			Christopher J. Calabrese
Brain loaned to:	AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
att!ulysses!cjc		cjc at ulysses.att.com
Quote:	``I'm sure Henry Spencer will have a .signature on this soon.''