Multiconsole-computer display system utilising television techniques

Standard television-raster techniques can provide good-quality digitally generated alpha-numeric and graphical displays at low cost. The regeneration of displayed information for a multiconsole system can be conveniently and economically achieved using a magnetic-drum buffer store whose parallel-access ability and synchronous nature are particularly attractive features. A system for 30 or more independent consoles online to a computer is considered, each console comprising a television display and silent keyboard. The relative merits of the 405- and 625-line standards are discussed and schemes using software and hardware character generation are outlined. The computer must organise the data for display and handle the keyboard inputs. In large systems a small satellite computer can fulfil these functions without the efficient utilisation of the main computer being significantly impaired.