dew@ttrde.UUCP (Dan Wolski) (07/06/88)
This posting is in response to the eleven articles posted in
comp.terminals (this is the twelfth) regarding the 615, 620, and 630
terminals.
For those of you not familiar with them, the AT&T 615, 620, and 630
are simultaneously active windowing terminals. Each of their windows
is active with a process running on the host. For example, three
windows can be scrolling at the same time on your screen, while you
are concurrently editing a file.
The 615 has up to three windows, and has character mapped graphics,
the 620 has up to 6 windows and has 656x480 resolution, and the 630
has up to 7 windows from each of two hosts with 1024x1024 resolution.
The 630 is also downloadable, and has a number of productivity
features built into its user interface.
The 615, 620, and 630 are built around the use of multiple windowing,
and an evaluation of these units without considering this capability
is not a correct appraisal. One posting evaluated the 620 without
considering this product feature.
Since each of the windows is a separate virtual terminal to the
kernel, six windows means six terminals. If there are 6 terminals on
the host each running 6 windows, then the kernel sees 36 terminals.
Processes running in each of the windows will further load a system.
Overhead is introduced each time you create a new virtual terminal.
The same holds true for the terminal, since one physical line is
alternately shared by however many windows are receiving or sending
data.
One article suggests that horizontal scrolling for 132 columns is not
much better than wraparound. For background, the 615 supports 132
columns through a smaller font, and alternately through the 80
column font scrolled horizontally. The 620 offers 132 columns only
through horizontal scrolling. AT&T's implementation of 132 column mode
is an honest attempt at giving the customer what they want. Some
applications like spreadsheets can and do take advantage of the 132
column mode. Some terminal manufacturers support 132 columns, but
with a font so small that it is almost unreadable. The 615 gives the
user a choice. The user can choose between the 80 column or 132
column font (which on the 615 is very readable). However, unlike
other terminals, the 615 doesn't force the user to give up his 132
column applications when using the 80 column font. The 620 gives the
user a low cost, highly functional (windows, very fast 4014 emulation,
high level Computer Graphics Interface) graphics terminal. The 78 DPI
resolution is not sufficient for an easily read 132 column font. To
support applications which require 132 columns, the 620 uses horizontal
scrolling. To give you higher resolution just for 132 columns would
be a waste of money.
The concurrent windowing is accomplished through the use of a utility
called AT&T Windowing Utilities. This utility is a standard part of
the porting base of UNIX System V Release 3.0 and all releases after
this. This means that normally any UNIX box that run System V
Release 3 will have this utility installed. At this point, all
someone has to do after they plug in their 615, 620, and 630 is to
type "layers", and they have multiple windowing available to them.
Prior to the release of UNIX System V Release 3.0, AT&T offered the
5620 Core Package in source. This package contained the AT&T
Windowing Utilities.
The point of this is that the 615, 620, and 630 are compatible with
a number of brands of hosts right now, even though the manufacturer
does not advertise that the 615, 620, and 630 will work with their
host. The 615/620/630 now are installed on Pyramid, Sun, Alliant,
Amdahl, and many other brands of hosts. The 615/620/630 of course
work with and AT&T supports the family on its 3B line of computers.
To handle the use of the 600 family on other hosts, we have done a
number of things.
- Offering the 5620 DMD Core Package in source, which included the
AT&T Windowing Utilities.
- Worked with the University of California, San Diego to produce
the 4.2 version of the 5620 DMD Core, Text and Application
Development Packages, offered in source in binary.
- Offering the 630 MTG Software Development Package in source.
- Worked with UCSD again to produce the 4.3 version of the 630
Software Development Package, offered in source and binary.
All source software is available through the UNIX Licensing at
800-828-UNIX. Unlike many other host vendor/operating system
suppliers, AT&T is one of the very few companies that offers source
code for -any- software. Since the source is available, some
manufacturers have additionally supported the 630 Software Development
Package on their host.
AT&T at Skokie has the tape which allows someone to port the 630 MTG
Software Development Package to their Berkeley UNIX system. We also
have binaries written for specific hosts. In addition to the compiler,
there is an interface for the AT&T Windowing Utilities to be used with
a Berkeley kernel. You get the tape by being a source licensee of the
630 MTG Software Development Package, and you get the Berkeley binaries
and source for free by writing me (ihnp4!ttrde!dew).
The software in the 630 MTG Software Development Package is supported
by AT&T. As mentioned in one article, there is other software
available through the UNIX Toolchest for a nominal fee. The Toolchest
contains two very popular application packages, cip and proof. Two
software vendors have incorporated the proof package into their
application and therefore assumed support responsibility.
The 615, 620, and 630 have been on the market for less than one year.
Their sales are very good. These units are priced dramatically
lower than the 5620 ($5,000.), which was the first terminal to use this
technology. You will see extensions of the 600 family in the future
which incorporate this multiple windowing technology, and also moves
the line into some different application areas.
I have tried to keep the propaganda in this posting to a minimum, but
since there were 11 articles posted regarding the line, and several of
which asked questions, I have had to talk about some of the product
features of the 600 family.
Dan Wolski
ihnp4!ttrde!dew
attunix!ttrde!dew