re amber monitor on unix-pc

[daniel.r.levy]

An article in one of these unix-pc groups the other day mentioned some firm
in Florida that had offered a "monitor upgrade" (to amber, or blue [?!]) in
the early days of the unix-pc.  I can't find the article now.  Anyhow, I
want to make a few comments...

I talked with a fellow here who has considerable expertise in CRTs (after all,
terminals have been historically a large part of our site's business :-).
His opinion is that he knows of no amber phosphor as good as the green that
comes with the unix-pc (a high-efficiency P31 phosphor with an extremely short
persistence).  Typical amber phosphors are half or less as efficient as the P31
green, have longer persistence ("tail"), and are more vulnerable to screen
burn.  These characteristics might not be annoying to someone who is not a
CRT connoisseur (I use an amber terminal with P134 phosphor when not at my
Sun workstation, and I have not been unhappy with it, though some screen
burn is evident on close inspection when the terminal is lit, and more plainly
visible when the terminal is powered off).  But the limitations of the amber
phosphor might be something to take into account before switching to an amber
tube.

I didn't check into blue; that seems to me like an awfully bizarre color for a
monochrome data display.  Maybe bluish-white was meant?
-- 
Dan'l Levy                 UNIX(R) mail:  att!ttbcad!levy, att!cbnewsc!danl
AT&T Bell Laboratories
5555 West Touhy Avenue     Any opinions expressed in the message above are
Skokie, Illinois  60077    mine, and not necessarily AT&T's.