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Cromemco Dazzler
The Cromemco Dazzler was a graphics card for S-100 bus computers introduced in a ''Popular Electronics'' cover story in 1976.Les Solomon"Solomon's Memory", in ''Digital Deli'', Workman Publications, 1984, It was the first color graphics card available for microcomputers.Harry Garland"Ten years and counting" ''Creative Computing'', Volume 10, Number 11 (November 1984), pg. 104 The Dazzler was the first of a succession of increasingly capable graphics products from Cromemco which, by 1984, were in use at 80% of all television stations in the U.S. for the display of weather, news, and sports graphics. History The Dazzler came about in a roundabout fashion after Les Solomon, Technical Editor for ''Popular Electronics'' magazine, demonstrated the original Altair 8800 to Roger Melen of Stanford University. After seeing it, Melen purchased Altair #2 for his friend Harry Garland to work with. The two built a number of add-ons for the machine, collaborating with Terry Walker on the design o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cromemco Dazzler Apr 1976
Cromemco was a Mountain View, California microcomputer company known for its high-end Z80-based S-100 bus computers and peripherals in the early days of the personal computer revolution. The company began as a partnership in 1974 between Harry Garland and Roger Melen, two Stanford Ph.D. students. The company was named for their residence at Stanford University ( Crothers Memorial, a Stanford dormitory reserved for engineering graduate students). Cromemco was incorporated in 1976 and their first products were the Cromemco Cyclops digital camera, and the Cromemco Dazzler color graphics interface - both groundbreaking at the time - before they moved on to making computer systems. In December 1981, ''Inc.'' magazine named Cromemco in the top ten fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. Early history The collaboration that was to become Cromemco began in 1970 when Harry Garland and Roger Melen, graduate students at Stanford University, began working on a series of artic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RF Modulator
An RF modulator (or radio frequency modulator) is an electronic device whose input is a baseband signal which is used to modulate a radio frequency source. RF modulators are used to convert signals from devices such as media players, VCRs and game consoles to a format that can be handled by a device designed to receive a modulated RF input, such as a radio or television receiver. History Prior to the introduction of specialised video connector standards such as SCART, TVs were designed to only accept signals through the aerial connector: signals originate at a TV station, are transmitted over the air, and are then received by an antenna and demodulated within the TV. When equipment was developed which could use a television receiver as its display device, such as VCRs, DVD players, early home computers, and video game consoles, the signal was modulated and sent to the RF input connector. The aerial connector is standard on all TV sets, even very old ones. Since later tele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composite Video
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video (typically at 525 lines or 625 lines) as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video (two channels) and the even higher-quality component video (three or more channels). In all of these video formats, audio is carried on a separate connection. Composite video is also known by the initials CVBS for composite video baseband signal or color, video, blanking and sync, or is simply referred to as ''SD video'' for the standard-definition television signal it conveys. There are three dominant variants of composite video signals, corresponding to the analog color system used: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. Usually composite video is carried by a yellow RCA connector, but other connections are used in professional settings. Signal components A composite video signal combines, on one wire, the video information required to recreate a color picture, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dazzler - Cromemco Color Graphics Interface (1977)
Dazzler may refer to: * Cromemco Dazzler, a graphics card for S-100 bus computers * ''The Cruise of the Dazzler'', an early novel by Jack London * Dazzler (Marvel Comics), a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books * Dazzler (weapon) A dazzler is a non-lethal weapon which uses intense directed radiation to temporarily disorient its target with flash blindness. They can effectively deter further advances, regardless of language or cultural barriers, but can also be used for h ..., a non-lethal weapon which uses intense directed radiation See also * Dazzle (other) {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spacewar!
''Spacewar!'' is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After its initial creation, ''Spacewar!'' was expanded further by other students and employees of universities in the area, including Dan Edwards and Peter Samson. It was also spread to many of the few dozen installations of the PDP-1 computer, making ''Spacewar!'' the first known video game to be played at multiple computer installations. The game features two spaceships, "the needle" and "the wedge", engaged in a dogfight while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Both ships are controlled by human players. Each ship has limited weaponry and fuel for maneuvering, and the ships remain in motion even when the player is not accelerating. Flying near the star to provide a gravity assist was a common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floppy Disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that removes dust particles from the spinning disk. Floppy disks store digital data which can be read and written when the disk is inserted into a floppy disk drive (FDD) connected to or inside a computer or other device. The first floppy disks, invented and made by IBM, had a disk diameter of . Subsequently, the 5¼-inch and then the 3½-inch became a ubiquitous form of data storage and transfer into the first years of the 21st century. 3½-inch floppy disks can still be used with an external USB floppy disk drive. USB drives for 5¼-inch, 8-inch, and other-size floppy disks are rare to non-existent. Some individuals and organizations continue to use older equipment to read or transfer data from floppy disks. Floppy disk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paper Tape
Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage that consists of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched. It developed from and was subsequently used alongside punched cards, differing in that the tape is continuous. Punched cards, and chains of punched cards, were used for control of looms in the 18th century. Use for telegraphy systems started in 1842. Punched tape was used throughout the 19th and for much of the 20th centuries for programmable looms, teleprinter communication, for input to computers of the 1950s and 1960s, and later as a storage medium for minicomputers and CNC machine tools. During the Second World War, high-speed punched tape systems using optical readout methods were used in code breaking systems. Punched tape was used to transmit data for manufacture o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Veit
Stan Veit (25 December 1919 - 29 July 2010) was an entrepreneur and publisher. He ran "Computer Mart", the first computer store in New York City, was the personal computer editor of ''Popular Electronics'' magazine, and then Editor-in-Chief of '' Computer Shopper''. He published his reminiscences about the early history of the personal computer industry in a 1993 book called ''Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer.'' Biography Early life Veit studied at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, RCA Institutes, Hofstra College, and received a bachelor's degree in education from New School University. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. He then worked as a technical writer for a number of defense contractors. Career In 1976 he opened Computer Mart of New York. This was one of the first computer stores in the world. It sold computers from Imsai, Sphere Computers, South West Technical Products, and Apple Computer, among others. It was the third Apple dealer appointed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Li-Chen Wang
Li-Chen Wang (born 1935) is an American computer engineer, best known for his ''Palo Alto Tiny BASIC'' for Intel 8080-based microcomputers. He was a member of the Homebrew Computer Club and made significant contributions to the software for early microcomputer systems from Tandy Corporation and Cromemco. He made early use of the word ''copyleft'', in Palo Alto Tiny BASIC's distribution notice "@COPYLEFT ALL WRONGS RESERVED" in June 1976. Homebrew Computer Club The Homebrew Computer Club was a hotbed of BASIC development, with members excited by Altair BASIC. Fellow members Steve Wozniak and Tom Pittman would develop their own BASICs (Integer BASIC and 6800 Tiny BASIC respectively). Wang analyzed the Altair BASIC code and contributed edits to Tiny BASIC Extended. Wang published in the newsletter a loader for the 8080, commenting on the Open Letter to Hobbyists: Palo Alto Tiny BASIC Palo Alto Tiny BASIC was the fourth version of a Tiny BASIC interpreter that appeared in '' D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conway's Game Of Life
The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input. One interacts with the Game of Life by creating an initial configuration and observing how it evolves. It is Turing complete and can simulate a universal constructor or any other Turing machine. Rules The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite, two-dimensional orthogonal grid of square ''cells'', each of which is in one of two possible states, ''live'' or ''dead'' (or ''populated'' and ''unpopulated'', respectively). Every cell interacts with its eight '' neighbours'', which are the cells that are horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent. At each step in time, the following transitions occur: # Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by underpopulation. # Any live cell with two or three live neig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
