Vector General

Vector General (VG) was a series of <a href="/facts/Graphics_terminal/fSlx05qV">graphics terminals</a> and the name of the Californian company that produced them. They were first introduced in 1969 and were used in computer labs until the early 1980s.
The terminals were based on a common platform that read <a href="/facts/Vector_space/M1pxMLx2">vectors</a> provided by a host <a href="/facts/Minicomputer/g8hvpQxe">minicomputer</a> and included hardware that could perform basic mathematical transformations in the terminal. This greatly improved the performance of operations like rotating an object or zooming in. The transformed vectors were then displayed on the terminal's built-in <a href="/facts/Vector_monitor/3dn9Srls">vector monitor</a>.
In contrast to similar terminals from other vendors, the Vector General systems included little internal <a href="/facts/Computer_memory/hQKVQ51J">memory</a>. Instead, they stored vectors on the host computer's memory and accessed them via <a href="/facts/Direct_memory_access/DWuVgclV">direct memory access</a> (DMA). Fully equipped VG3D terminals ran at about $31,000 including a low-end <a href="/facts/PDP-11/9HkGUzFn">PDP-11</a> computer, compared to machines like the <a href="/facts/IBM_2250/PA0l5Gcz">IBM 2250</a> which cost $100,000 for just the terminal.
Among a number of famous uses known within the computer graphics field, it was a VG3D terminal connected to a <a href="/facts/DEC_PDP-11/9HkGUzFn">PDP-11/45</a> that was used to produce the "attacking the Death Star will not be easy" animations in <a href="/facts/Star_Wars_(film)/J4eECtTN">Star Wars</a>.

Vector General open-in-new

Vector General