lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) (03/26/91)
I recently purchased a DEC GIGI and Barco monitor, from what I can find out, it has an 8k memory, and will emulate a VT52. Does anybody out there in DEC land know anything about GIGIs? What are they, what were they used for? POSTED FROM THE GREAT STATE OF NEVADA ================================================================================ +Where men are MEN.... reply to: lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu +And sheep are nervous.
terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) (03/27/91)
In article <5876@tahoe.unr.edu>, lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) writes: > I recently purchased a DEC GIGI and Barco monitor, from what I can > find out, it has an 8k memory, and will emulate a VT52. Does anybody > out there in DEC land know anything about GIGIs? What are they, what > were they used for? It also has a brain-dead VT100 emulation. It was the first DEC terminal to implement ReGIS graphics (predating the VT125). The color attributes are quite bizarre - the color cell boundaries are not the same as the char- acter cell boundaries, so if you switch colors, you may have half of a character being one color and half another. It has Microsoft ROM BASIC in it as well. We tossed a few dozen of these in the trash earlier this year after an unsuccessful attempt to find them new homes. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381
muswick@vs2.uh.cwru.edu (03/27/91)
In article <5876@tahoe.unr.edu>, lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) writes: > > I recently purchased a DEC GIGI and Barco monitor, from what I can > find out, it has an 8k memory, and will emulate a VT52. Does anybody > out there in DEC land know anything about GIGIs? What are they, what > were they used for? > I used to work with GIGI's alot - in fact I have the programmers ref man set. I also may have the GIGI libraries on tape somewhere. Simply a GIGI is very similar to a VT125/VT240 - but the ansi keyboard sequences are not the full vt100 setup. Since it has been 6 years since I worked with one, I don't remember what is missing from the ansi/vt100 which prevents full vt100 emulation. I do remember using the ansi mode and vt100 on the SET TERM in dcl - but having to repaint the screen with EDT alot to see anything. I'll check my docs which are home and post the specs, but I recall the GIGI had 720 (800?) x 480 resolution x 3 (4?) bits of color/grey scale in groups of 8 pixels. The colors I think were either on or off so there was a total of 8 colors (black, white, red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, and cyan). And I seem to recall an intensity bit. Which allowed for a total 15 colors (since low intensity black is still black). Also there was a peculilar memory structure in that the horizontal pixels were bit mapped per each byte and each byte could have its own foreground and background color. I know this sounds confusing, so I will diagram below: 720 pixels ---> aaaaaaaabbbbbbbbccccccccdddddddd ... 480 pixels eeeeeeeeffffffffgggggggghhhhhhhh ... | iiiiiiiijjjjjjjjkkkkkkkkllllllll ... | . V . . Now each letter is a pixel, that can be turn off or on. Each group of 8 pixels (a's , b's , c's) and so on have a foreground and background value associated with them, foreground color displayed when the pixel is on, and background when off. In hardware what DEC had was 16 bits for every 8 pixels. Bit number as follows: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 fred fgreen fblue fintens bred bgreen bblue bintens I used to display images using a dithering and a combiantation 4 bits at a time. Speed was slow, esp. limited by a rs232 line. All programs written for the GIGI would work on a VT125 or VT240. Infact usually with better quality since the vt240 did not have the 8 bit grouping. The barco's on the other hand were usefull as 2nd monitors for our rgb image processing systems. Good luck Gary Muswick Supv, Image Analysis Center University Hospitals of Cleveland muswick@vs2.uh.cwru.edu
joltes@husc9.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes) (03/28/91)
In article <5876@tahoe.unr.edu> lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) writes: > > I recently purchased a DEC GIGI and Barco monitor, from what I can >find out, it has an 8k memory, and will emulate a VT52. Does anybody >out there in DEC land know anything about GIGIs? What are they, what >were they used for? > > POSTED FROM THE GREAT STATE OF NEVADA Well, a GIGI is essentially a smart terminal that is used for the DEC GIGI BASIC language, which uses ReGIS graphics for display output. You can get some info on ReGIS from the VT2xx series Programmers Guide, which gives some detail on basic commands. And, if you send me your SnailMail address, I'll send you the original DEC "GIGI Programming Reference Card" and "GIGI Terminal Setup Reference Card," of which I have several (I also have the full-blown GIGI programming book, but I'm keeping that since I use ReGIS on VT series terminals now and again...). And I also have a complete (still in the plastic carrying case!) GIGI terminal hanging around the Science Center -- status unknown (i.e. I don't know if it works). Anyone want it? Send me $10 for shipping and it's yours!!! Monitor not included... Dick Joltes joltes@husc9.harvard.edu Hardware & Networking Manager, Computer Services joltes@husc9.bitnet Harvard University Science Center
terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) (03/28/91)
In article <6FqgZ4w163w@zl2tnm.gp.co.nz>, don@zl2tnm.gp.co.nz (Don Stokes) writes: > > SET TERM/DEV=VK100 works in VMS, and doesn't require you to repaint the > screen in EDT. Actually, this is one of the N mystical now-you-see-it-now-you-don'ts of VMS. It depends on what VMS release you were at - it alternately worked/ didn't throughout most of the V4 releases. Some of the other mystical items are: o Building standalone BACKUP on "small" media o Power failure recovery on the second UBA on a 78x and so on. If you read the sources, there are a bunch of incriminating comments in the sources about the "GIGI problem". Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381
dela@ee.rochester.edu (Del Armstrong) (03/28/91)
In article <L5PgZ3w163w@zl2tnm.gp.co.nz>, don@zl2tnm.gp.co.nz (Don Stokes) writes: > lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) writes: > > > [Asks about GIGIs, one of which he just acquired] > The GIGI, aka VK100 understands BASIC-80, VT52 codes, a limited ANSI > (not quite VT100) implementation and ReGIS (Remote Graphics Instruction > Set). Memory: 13K available to user, consisting of 7.8K for BASIC > programs, 2K+ for ReGIS macrographs and soft keys, the rest being taken > by three 95x10x8 soft character sets. Graphics: 768x240 pixels, 8 > colours (colours in 12 pixel lumps) plus flashing. > In addition, I remember that you could download basic programs from a host over the serial line. The clever hacks would imbed 8080 machine code in the basic program (and the Regis macros?) and then execute it. Don't ask me how, I don't have the manuals handy anymore. You might check the DECUS library for GIGI stuff. Del Armstrong Internet : dela@ee.rochester.edu UUCP : ...allegra!rochester!ur-valhalla!dela
slsw2@cc.usu.edu (03/28/91)
In article <1991Mar26.160557.1@vs2.uh.cwru.edu>, muswick@vs2.uh.cwru.edu writes: > In article <5876@tahoe.unr.edu>, lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) writes: >> >> I recently purchased a DEC GIGI and Barco monitor, from what I can >> find out, it has an 8k memory, and will emulate a VT52. Does anybody >> out there in DEC land know anything about GIGIs? What are they, what >> were they used for? >> > > Simply a GIGI is very similar to a VT125/VT240 - but the ansi keyboard > sequences are not the full vt100 setup. That would be the ANSI *escape* sequences, not the keyboard sequences. The keyboard is, in fact, a full VT100 keyboard, but the GIGI doesn't recognize all of the VT100 escape sequences. The GIGI also has a built-in BASIC interpreter and can therefore be used as a standalone microcomputer in the manner of the TRS-80 Model I. -- =============================================================================== Roger Ivie 35 S 300 W Logan, Ut. 84321 (801) 752-8633 ===============================================================================
haroldt@paralandra.yorku.ca (Harold Tomlinson) (03/29/91)
In article <5876@tahoe.unr.edu> lsmith@unssun.nevada.edu (The Master) writes:
:> I recently purchased a DEC GIGI and Barco monitor, from what I can
:> find out, it has an 8k memory, and will emulate a VT52. Does anybody
:> out there in DEC land know anything about GIGIs? What are they, what
:> were they used for?
:>
:> POSTED FROM THE GREAT STATE OF NEVADA
Nervada???
I picked up a few Gigi's that someone was giving away (read tossing) and
have been using them in place of my PC since. Someone wrote that it had a
"braindead" emulation of vt100... Funny, works great for me. I have a
printcap entry on my DecStation2100 for a vk100 which is what it really is.
I've had no problem and the price was great. I also have the manual for
it including some technical information, paper only I'm afraid.
--
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