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The Tektronix 4014 was an early text and graphics computer terminal based on the company's own storage tube technology. The terminal was introduced by Tektronix around 1974.
Prior to the 4014, most computer graphics was done with vector graphics displays that continouosly repainted the image under computer control. This required a very high bandwidth connection to the computer, which generally meant the display could be no more than a dozen or so meters from the computer. The modern approach of having a local memory in the display that stores a value for each pixel would have been prohibitively expensive in the 1970s. Tektronix solved this problem by developing the Direct View Bistable Storage Tube (DVBST), which allowed the use of a slower, serial, data connection.
For graphics input, the terminal used a pair of thumb wheels on the keyboard to control the position of a cursor.
The 4014 had a series of commands for drawing both text and graphics. The 4014 command set became a de facto standard and when personal computers with graphics displays became common in the 1990s, many communications packages included the ability to accept Tektronix 4014 commands. Because of this the designation "(Tektronix) 4014" has entered the traditional computing vocabulary, leading to the memory of the terminal long after the actual hardware became obsolete and otherwise disappeared.
The 4014 was not the first computer terminal to use Tektronix storage tubes. An earlier device was called ARDS for Advanced Remote Display Station and originated at MIT's Project MAC.
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