Advanced Remote Display Station
{{Short description|Early desktop storage-tube vector graphics terminal from 1968}}
{{Information appliance
| name = Advanced Remote Display Station
| manufacturer = Computer Displays, Inc.
| type = desktop vector graphics and text display terminal
| release date = 1968; 56 years ago
| baseprice = $12,750 (equivalent to about $114,675 in 2024)
| input = keyboard, mouse, joystick, graphics tablet
| developer = MIT's E.S.L. and Project MAC
| display = Tektronix Type 611 storage tube
| image = Advanced Remote Display Station Console.png
| caption = ARDS desktop terminal with mouse.
}}
The Advanced Remote Display Station (also referred to as the ARDS) was a desktop storage-tube-based vector graphics and text terminal produced by Computer Displays, Inc. starting in 1968. It was announced at the 1968 Spring Joint Computer Conference and available by August 1968 for $12,750 (about $114,675 in 2024).
The ARDS was the first commercial product to include a computer mouse as an optional peripheral as early as April 1968 for an additional $1200 (about $10,793 in 2024).{{Cite book |url=https://bitsavers.org/magazines/Computer_Design/Computer_Design_V07_N04_196804.pdf |title=Computer Design V07 N04 |date=April 1968 |pages=80–86}}{{Cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/magazines/Datamation/196808.pdf |title=Datamation |date=August 1968 |page=13}}
The ARDS was capable of connecting to a computer remotely through a modem, or locally through an RS-232 cable. Computer Displays, Inc. also offered optional graphical input peripherals for the ARDS including a mouse and joystick.
Development
The ARDS began development in early 1965 jointly by MIT's Electronic Systems Laboratory and Project MAC at MIT's CSAIL, with prototypes named the ARDS-I and ARDS-II prior to becoming a commercial product.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Lyle B. |date=1970-12-01 |title=A Survey of Interactive Graphical Systems for Mathematics |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/356580.356582 |journal=ACM Comput. Surv. |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=261–301 |doi=10.1145/356580.356582 |osti=1444631 |issn=0360-0300}}{{Cite journal |last1=Ross |first1=D. T. (Douglas Taylor) |last2=Ward |first2=John Erwin |last3=Laboratory |first3=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Electronic Systems |date=May 1968 |title=Investigations in computer-aided design for numerically controlled production |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/755 |journal=MIT LIDS Technical Reports |pages=100–113|hdl=1721.1/755 }} The first ARDS-I prototype was completed in 1965; an early ARDS-II prototype was functional by May 1967, and was updated in August 1967 with the larger, final display CRT.
Hardware
= Display =
The display of the commercially produced ARDS was a Tektronix Type 611 direct-view storage tube, meaning that once graphics or text were drawn onto the screen, they could not be erased individually without erasing the entire screen.{{Cite journal |last=Fiasconaro |first=James Gerard |date=June 1970 |title=A Computer-controlled Graphical Display Processor |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/149389 |journal=MIT LCS Technical Reports |language=en |pages=6–9|hdl=1721.1/149389 }} This was attributed to the terminal's relatively low cost and intended remote use over narrow-bandwidth telephone lines. Filling the entire display with 4000 alphanumeric characters took about 33 seconds.
= Mouse =
The ARDS's mouse did not use a rolling ball to track movement, but rather two perpendicularly mounted wheels on the bottom and three buttons on top, much like the mouse used during The Mother of All Demos.{{Cite book |url=https://bitsavers.org/pdf/computerDisplaysInc/RM86802_ARDS_RefMan_Dec68.pdf |title=Advanced Remote Display Station Reference Manual |date=December 1, 1968 |publisher=Computer Displays, Inc. |pages=29–31}}
File:ARDS Terminal Mouse.png|Top view of the ARDS's mouse.
File:ARDS Terminal Mouse Underside.png|Bottom view of the ARDS's mouse.
Other models
The ARDS 100A was released as the successor to the ARDS in 1969.{{Cite web |title=epocalc - Computer models database |url=http://www.epocalc.net/php/liste_models.php?texte=ards&look=All+fields&nocomp=pc |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=www.epocalc.net}} It was priced at under $8000, much lower than the original ARDS. Along with the original ARDS's mouse and joystick, it added a graphics tablet as an input option.{{Cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/magazines/Datamation/196912.pdf |title=Datamation |date=December 1969 |page=17}}
Computer Displays, Inc. was acquired by Adage, another graphics terminal manufacturer, in 1970.{{Cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/magazines/Datamation/19701101.pdf |title=Datamation |date=November 1, 1970 |page=98}} By 1971, another ARDS model was being sold under Adage as the ARDS 100B.{{Cite book |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/magazines/Modern_Data/Modern_Data_1971_06.pdf |title=Modern Data |date=June 1971 |page=47}}
References
External links
- The [https://bitsavers.org/pdf/computerDisplaysInc/RM86802_ARDS_RefMan_Dec68.pdf ARDS Reference Manual] of December 1, 1968
- An MIT [https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/149382 paper describing a graphical circuit drawing and editing program for the ARDS] from October 1969 (source code listed on pp. 62–94)
{{computer-stub}}