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619

Dating to 1972, this brief, silent film promotes the then-new Digivue Panel, which was one of the first functional plasma panel systems. Digivue (seen at 1:00 of the film in an equipment rack) was an innovative, electronic editing and display system developed by Owens Illinois. It was suggested as a replacement for the standard cathode ray tube with an 8.5-inch sandwich filled with gas plasma. A matrix was formed between the glass sheets, consisting of metallic conductors. Used in conjunction with a computer, alphanumeric characters were formed by signals from a keyboard. According to an article about the system, "Copy is punched into the computer and then can be called up on the Digivue panel for revising and editing from the keyboard." According to the film some suggested applications would be for use on calculators, cash registers, telephone and computer terminals, information management systems, medical data systems, inventory scheduling, point of sale devices and more.

>Dating to 1972, this brief, silent film promotes the then-new Digivue Panel, which was one of the first functional plasma panel systems. Digivue (seen at 1:00 of the film in an equipment rack) was an innovative, electronic editing and display system developed by Owens Illinois. It was suggested as a replacement for the standard cathode ray tube with an 8.5-inch sandwich filled with gas plasma. A matrix was formed between the glass sheets, consisting of metallic conductors. Used in conjunction with a computer, alphanumeric characters were formed by signals from a keyboard. According to an article about the system, "Copy is punched into the computer and then can be called up on the Digivue panel for revising and editing from the keyboard." According to the film some suggested applications would be for use on calculators, cash registers, telephone and computer terminals, information management systems, medical data systems, inventory scheduling, point of sale devices and more.
[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Was the red text from Digivue? Curious about the individual pixel errors.

[–] • 1 pt

I believe it was. I don't remember seeing red text in the mir-1970s until the Texas Instruments calculators started coming out when I was in Junior High. Most of what I remember seeing were green text displays in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

[–] • 1 pt

Teradyne L100 PCB test systems had a 1-line plasma display like this. Always found those fascinating.

[–] • 1 pt

The L100 PCB Test System must be older than dirt, could not find it with a bing search.

I spent years on the Teradyne J971 and dabbled with the J973, ended up on the Teradyne Catalyst a couple of years before I quit.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

I think the L100s dated to the late 70s/early 80s. I can't find it's big brother, the L200 online anywhere either.

The L100 was a multi-rack system stuffed full of cards (I think 4 racks wide) with dark blue panels that could be removed to access the innards. There was a terminal output and a shelf where the fixture for board test sat. I seem to remember the ones we had talking to a VAX somewhere else in the building.

They were cool but ancient devices when I was working with them in the 90s. I suspect they're all gone by now.

Last thing we got before Lucent went to shit was a Teradyne Z system (Z99? can't remember) - just remember the thing was very unergonomic, you leaned across a big top plate to place the board in the test fixture, and it sat directly on the floor. At least the HP3070s leaned tilted so you could drop the board on them.

[–] • 1 pt

Lucent pillaged a few of our engineers and opened a site in S. Portland Maine in the late 80s, early 90s, it became Agere around 2002.

If we had an awkward test head like that, we would have designed and built a stand to allow it to easily mate to our handlers (IC Test, not board test). It was great having an in-house machine shop!