Post by thread:[EE]: What is a PC Terminal?

I was wondering if a PC Terminal is what I want. My project uses a PC running a terminal emulator, for inputting data and displaying data, through the serial port. That is all. If I were to get a PC Terminal, would it do the same thing? I just hook up a keyboard and display, connect the serial port and off I go? Thanks John -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

On Sat, 8 Mar 2003 08:29:26 -0800, John Pearson wrote: >I was wondering if a PC Terminal is what I want. > It's unclear just what you expect "a PC Terminal" to be. A "PC" is a personal computer which typically has a display, keyboard, and one or more serial ports attached to it. A "Terminal" is a device that typically only has a display, keyboard and a serial port. Terminals were much more common in the earlier years of computing when people time-shared much larger computers. You might want to look up the word terminal or VT-100 (a common older terminal) on the web. >My project uses a PC running a terminal emulator, for inputting data and displaying >data, through the serial port. That is all. > By talking over the serial port, the PC is acting as (emulating) a hardware terminal by using its display and keyboard. >If I were to get a PC Terminal, would it do the same thing? I just hook up a keyboard >and display, connect the serial port and off I go? If you were to get a terminal such as a VT-100 and connect its serial port to your PIC, you would be connecting its display and keyboard to your PIC just like your emulator program lets your PC do now. Regards, Bob -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

Hello, I think I have the ultimate terminal, it is a VT100-XAC...a real DEC VT100 with built in CPM operating system and Dual Floppies... An early attempt at a smart dumb terminal... Vern Bob Barr wrote: {Quote hidden}> > On Sat, 8 Mar 2003 08:29:26 -0800, John Pearson wrote: > > >I was wondering if a PC Terminal is what I want. > > > > It's unclear just what you expect "a PC Terminal" to be. > > Terminals were much more common in the earlier years of computing when > people time-shared much larger computers. You might want to look up > the word terminal or VT-100 (a common older terminal) on the web. > > > If you were to get a terminal such as a VT-100 and connect its serial > port to your PIC, you would be connecting its display and keyboard to > your PIC just like your emulator program lets your PC do now. > > Regards, Bob > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

On Sat, 8 Mar 2003 09:27:12 -0800, Vern Jones wrote: >Hello, > >I think I have the ultimate terminal, it is a VT100-XAC...a real DEC >VT100 with built in CPM operating system and Dual Floppies... > >An early attempt at a smart dumb terminal... > They probably splurged too and went with a Z80. :=) Regards, Bob -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

Hello Bob, They didn't go that far, its an 8085 based CP/M card... Vern Bob Barr wrote: {Quote hidden}> > On Sat, 8 Mar 2003 09:27:12 -0800, Vern Jones wrote: > > >Hello, > > > >I think I have the ultimate terminal, it is a VT100-XAC...a real DEC > >VT100 with built in CPM operating system and Dual Floppies... > > > >An early attempt at a smart dumb terminal... > > > > They probably splurged too and went with a Z80. :=) > > Regards, Bob > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

Or just surf to : http://www.vt100.net. Jan-Erik Söderholm Bob Barr wrote: >Terminals were much more common in the earlier years of computing when >people time-shared much larger computers. You might want to look up >the word terminal or VT-100 (a common older terminal) on the web. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

Was my VT100-XAC really a PC Terminal? It did have an OS---CP/M. Vern Jan-erik Söderholm (QAC) wrote: {Quote hidden}> > Or just surf to : http://www.vt100.net. > > Jan-Erik Söderholm > > Bob Barr wrote: > > >Terminals were much more common in the earlier years of computing when > >people time-shared much larger computers. You might want to look up > >the word terminal or VT-100 (a common older terminal) on the web. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

> I was wondering if a PC Terminal is what I want. My project uses > a PC running a terminal emulator, for inputting data and displaying > data, through the serial port. That is all. If I recall correctly, there was a terminal designed specifically for very cost sensitive multi-user PC applications. This was when PCs were still expensive and network hardware was expensive. A regular PC hosted the actual program. That PC had serial lines that connected to terminals which used PC-Terminal protocol. PC-Terminal protocol was similar to VT-100, ADM-3, etc terminal protocols. Display side was "normal". You sent escape sequences to position cursor, clear screen, set mode (blink, reverse, etc), etc. Characters encoding was same as the internal PC encoding. Big difference was that PC-Terminal keyboard didn't send ASCII characters back to the host PC. It sent PC keyboard scan codes. In some ways, this simplified programming the host PC to handle multiple processes & deal with outlying terminals as "dumb" PCs. The whole setup was like a tiny mainframe setup; central host system, remote terminals, vendor proprietary communications protocol, etc. I think some of the PC UNIX variants supported PC-Terminals too (as another terminal type). > If I were to get a PC Terminal, would it do the same thing? I just > hook up a keyboard & display, connect the serial port and off I go? A PC-Terminal was a terminal with keyboard, display, & serial port. If you used it, you'd have to decode the input stream from PC key codes to ASCII characters. Probably extra work you don't need. I'd stick with any ubiquitous terminal that followed DEC VT-100 protocol and sent a common ASCII character when you pressed a key on the keyboard. Lee Jones -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

Sometimes a "diskless" PC is referred to as a "PC terminal." You save some fraction of system cost not having any disks in the thing, plus some in the package, plus a substantial amount of the support cost associated with disks. You boot from the network, or ROM of some kind, and typically run a reduced suite of applications. For instance, PCs running 3270 software passed real 3270 terminals in cost quite some time ago, even with the special hardware required. PCs running tn3270 are even cheaper. You'd need more details to know if a particual "PC terminal" was useful for a particular application. BillW -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

> Sometimes a "diskless" PC is referred to as a "PC terminal." At Apollo we used to refer to them (internally of course) as "dickless". ***************************************************************** Embed Inc, embedded system specialists in Littleton Massachusetts (978) 742-9014, http://www.embedinc.com -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email spam_OUTlistservTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body