Increasing Capabilities in Interactive Computer Graphics Terminals

The earliest interactive computer graphics terminals were closely coupled to their central computers and placed heavy loads upon them for resource allocation. Two marked trends in the evolution of terminals have been a reduction of central computer load and exploitation of the increasing performance/cost ratio for terminal equipment. The trends have led to graphics terminals that operate on a stand-alone basis. The history of these trends is traced and particularly illustrated by the cases of the fully interactive, refreshed CRT GRAPHIC 21 and the simply interactive, storage CRT GRAPHIC 101 terminals.