Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Bellmac 32 processor
I forgot if I posted this before. I found it under email "drafts". The Bellmac32 processor was probably the last processor by AT&T/Western Electric/Bell Labs, following the adventures of the Bellmac-8, Hobbit, Crisp and other processors. It was used in the 3b2 series of minicomputers, a single-board computer, VME card and the AT&T/Teletype 5620 graphics terminal. I chronicled some of it here: http://ferretronix.com/tech/3b2/index.html Wikipedia seems correct with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blit_(computer_terminal) The Blit programmable bitmap graphics terminal was designed by Rob Pike and Bart Locanthi Jr. of Bell Labs in 1982. The Blit technology was commercialized by AT&T and Teletype. In 1984, the DMD (dot-mapped display) 5620 was released, followed by models 630 MTG (multi-tasking graphics) in 1987 and 730 MTG in 1989. The 5620 used a Western Electric 32100 processor (aka Bellmac 32) and had a 15" green phosphor display with 800 x 1024 x 1 resolution (66 x 88 characters in the initial text mode) interlaced at 30 Hz. The 630 and 730 had Motorola 68000 processors and a 1024 x 1024 x 1 monochrome display at 60 Hz (most had amber displays, but some had white or green displays).
On 2/2/26 11:30, Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I forgot if I posted this before. I found it under email "drafts".
The Bellmac32 processor was probably the last processor by AT&T/Western Electric/Bell Labs, following the adventures of the Bellmac-8, Hobbit, Crisp and other processors. It was used in the 3b2 series of minicomputers, a single-board computer, VME card and the AT&T/Teletype 5620 graphics terminal.
It's a beautiful architecture.
I chronicled some of it here: http://ferretronix.com/tech/3b2/index.html
Wikipedia seems correct with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blit_(computer_terminal)
The Blit programmable bitmap graphics terminal was designed by Rob Pike and Bart Locanthi Jr. of Bell Labs in 1982. The Blit technology was commercialized by AT&T and Teletype. In 1984, the DMD (dot-mapped display) 5620 was released, followed by models 630 MTG (multi-tasking graphics) in 1987 and 730 MTG in 1989. The 5620 used a Western Electric 32100 processor (aka Bellmac 32) and had a 15" green phosphor display with 800 x 1024 x 1 resolution (66 x 88 characters in the initial text mode) interlaced at 30 Hz. The 630 and 730 had Motorola 68000 processors and a 1024 x 1024 x 1 monochrome display at 60 Hz (most had amber displays, but some had white or green displays).
We have a 630 MTG running on a 3B2-500 at LSSM, up on the second floor. It runs the "layers" windowing system, which works great and is surprisingly responsive for running on a 9600 baud serial line. It is the amber version. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On Mon, Feb 2, 2026 at 12:22 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
The Blit programmable bitmap graphics terminal was designed by Rob Pike and Bart Locanthi Jr. of Bell Labs in 1982. The Blit technology was commercialized by AT&T and Teletype. In 1984, the DMD (dot-mapped display) 5620 was released, followed by models 630 MTG (multi-tasking graphics) in 1987 and 730 MTG in 1989. The 5620 used a Western Electric 32100 processor (aka Bellmac 32) and had a 15" green phosphor display with 800 x 1024 x 1 resolution The 630 and 730 had Motorola 68000 processors and a 1024 x 1024 x 1 monochrome display at 60 Hz
We have a 630 MTG running on a 3B2-500 at LSSM, up on the second floor. It runs the "layers" windowing system, which works great and is surprisingly responsive for running on a 9600 baud serial line. It is the amber version.
Nice. I have a 5620 and a 730 MTG (including keyboards and mice!) that came from Lucent / Bell Labs Columbus in the previous century. I don't have any 3B2 gear so I'd have to do emulation or run Layers on BSD. I saw a 5620 at VCF East a couple of years back. Nice to see one doing all the things. They are definitely cool. -ethan
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
participants (3)
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Dave McGuire -
Ethan Dicks -
Jeffrey Jonas