The Silent 700, introduced in 1971,
was a line of portable
computer terminal
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and ...
s manufactured by
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
in the 1970s and 1980s. Silent 700s printed with a 5 x 7
[ ]dot-matrix
A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Most types of modern technology use dot matrices for display of information, including mobile phones, televisions, and printers. The system is al ...
heating element onto a roll of heat-sensitive paper. Some models were equipped with an integrated acoustic coupler
In telecommunications, an acoustic coupler is an interface device for coupling electrical signals by acoustical means—usually into and out of a telephone.
The link is achieved through converting electric signals from the phone line to sound a ...
and modem that could receive data at 30 characters per second
In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Diffe ...
. Other models could be directly connected to computers at 300 bits/second (bps), and were sometimes used as the System console
One meaning of system console, computer console, root console, computer operator, operator's console, or simply console is the text entry and display device for system administration messages, particularly those from the BIOS or boot loader, the ...
where a hard copy record of the activities would be retained for a period of time.
Local capabilities
A pair of local tape cartridge devices were included, and data could be edited, tape-to-tape, for later transmission.
Model 725
The ''Model 725'' added the ability to switch-select bit rates of 110, 150 and 300, corresponding to 10, 15 or 30 characters per second.[
]
Model 745
The ''Model 745'' was introduced late 1975 as "the lightest-weight portable now available."
1200 bps
As 1200 bps dialup communication became more common among Time-sharing
In computing, time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users at the same time by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking.DEC Timesharing (1965), by Peter Clark, The DEC Professional, Volume 1, Number 1
Its emergence a ...
providers, the Silent 700 faced the problem that its printhead technology simply couldn't "heat up all the little dots" at 120 characters per second. TI solved this in their 780-series terminals by creating a two-character-wide thermal head, which printed 60 pairs of characters per second. This allowed the product line to survive a few more years in the new high-speed interactive computing
In computer science, interactive computing refers to software which accepts input from the user as it runs.
Interactive software includes commonly used programs, such as word processors or spreadsheet applications. By comparison, non-interactive ...
environment of the mid-1980s.
References
External links
{{Commons cat, Texas Instruments Silent 700
Silent 700 electronic data terminals from Texas Instruments, June 1972
(pdf
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
)
Silent 700 Electronic Data Terminals, 1976
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
)
Texas Instruments hardware
Computer terminals