The Blit - why it's so expensive.

[Sean Casey]

The reason that a BLIT is so expensive is because it isn't just a fancy
terminal. It is a 800x1000 resolution bit-mapped graphics workstation.
It has a mouse, 258k of ram,  and a WC32000 microprocessor onboard that
can upload and directly execute programs compiled on the 3b2. The
software allows a window structure to be overlaid over System-V. By
using multiplexed IO channels there can be multiple processes in the
BLIT talking to multiple processes in the host. So it is an extremely
smart graphics processor. That is why you were quoted such a high
price. Actually, I have heard they are closer to $10,000 (I don't know,
we got ours as a gift from AT&T).

As terminals, they are damned nice, allowing you to put 6k on the
screen at once. Makes editing a real breeze. I'd like to fool around
sometime and generate some neat fonts.

As for disadvantages, the high persistence phosphors aren't good for
animation, and the keyboard bounces (back to the radio shack days).

Sean
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