Wikipedia claims they were invented by ITT Canon, but doesn't give a year.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB-25>
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"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>