DEC Tubemate?!? (was Re: Any word on OS/2 for PDP-11?)

[Ethan Dicks]

On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 06:25:48PM -0800, Roger Ivie wrote:
> I did once see a prototype for something called a "Tubemate". Imagine
> the DECmate III/MicroVAX 2000 box with a small wide-format CRT instead
> of the front panel; something that could do, say, 80x12 instead of
> 80x24. This was allegedly a DECmate variant, however, rather than a VAX.

Hmm... I'm having problems envisioning it... I don't think of the
DECmate or the uVAX2K as having a "front panel".  Do you mean that there
was a wee CRT behind the flap, in the 5.25"-wide space where the drives
go?  The VT50 was 80x12, so it's not like there wouldn't be any software
that expected to see such a screen, but most apps, I'd think, would want
the "full" 24 lines.

You say "wide format" - so there was room for either an RX33 or RD31/RD32
_and_ the CRT in that space?  How odd.

> I don't know how far it was developed; it may have just been a
> conceptual mockup. I saw it gathering dust in the office of a DEC engineer 
> one time I visited the mill.

Did you ever get a sense of who the product would be for or what need it
would fill?

These days, it wouldn't be difficult to come up with a graphical 640x128
LCD panel to fit the space, and a circuit to drive the panel as an 80x12
(or 80x16) text screen that serially attaches to the DECmate, and honors
either VT52 or VT100 control strings - sort of a specialty version of
the universal terminal project that's come up here.

That brings us back to _why_ - who would have wanted such a beast.  If
there's a good answer, I have half a mind to put one together at some
point in the future, but I just can figure out why it's better than using
a DECmate or uVAX2000 with a portable LCD or EL-display terminal (like
my ELT-320).

-ethan

-- 
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S     Current South Pole Weather at  6-Feb-2008 at 03:40 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400       Temp  -46.1 F (-43.4 C)   Windchill   -73.6 F (-58.6 C)
APO AP 96598          Wind    9.0 kts Grid 52   Barometer 674.4 mb (10840 ft)

Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov            http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html