sight, a satellite interactive graphic terminal
A software system for a Satellite Interactive GrapHic Terminal called SIGHT has been developed by the Computing Sciences Department of Bell Telephone Laboratories for interaction with the General Electric 635 computer. The SIGHT hardware consists of a standard off-the-shelf PDP-7 computer, DEC 340 display, and peripheral equipment manufactured by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The general-purpose software system for SIGHT, designed and programmed at Bell Laboratories, builds upon and is a logical extension of the GRAPHIC 1 technology previously created at Bell Laboratories. 1 The Slave Interactive System, SIS, 2 on the GE-635 allows a SIGHT console to communicate with its host computer in an environment comparable to that projected for future time-sharing systems. These facilities, SIGHT and SIS, are general purpose systems capable of supporting diverse applications demanding a high degree of man-machine interaction. As such, SIGHT/SIS with the GE-635 fills the time gap at the Laboratories between the old GRAPHIC 1/7094 and the projected GRAPHIC 2/GE-645 3,4 complexes. In this regard it is appropriate to mention that the SIGHT hardware was selected primarily because it is upward compatible to GRAPHIC 2.
interaction interactive graphics graphics terminals software systems computer science computation laboratory general hardware standardization digitize extensibility technologies interactive system communication environments future timing applications sharing