Early Vid: DEC VT520 Terminal
Added 2025-12-09 03:46:22 +0000 UTCPerhaps the earliest "early release" I've ever made. Checking out a DEC VT520 terminal from the early 1990s. We'll fix a jammed power button, test it out with an RS/6000, and try out multiple terminal sessions after making an MMJ cable adapter to hook up a Cisco 2600 router. We'll also get a bonus interview with my mom, she worked for DEC in the 1980s.
Video will go live on the channel later in the week!
Comments
Very cool to hear about. Yeah I saw that calculator output transfer option haha, I'll have to try that out.
clabretro
2025-12-09 16:19:44 +0000 UTCOnce again proving it's who you know, not what you know, to score an interview with a former DEC employee! Now you need to hook up a printer. It looked like you could maybe configure the printer port for use on multiple sessions. I don't know if you noticed, but it looked like you could paste the calculator output into your session. I can see that being pretty handy. I used a lot of different terminals before we ever got PCs on our desks (and then we ran terminal emulators, so not much change for the primary part of our jobs). I was doing COBOL programming on Burroughs equipment, and we had some *massive* terminals in the late 80's (probably twice as wide, although the CRTs weren't much bigger). I don't remember the brands, but early on not only were they huge but all metal. I know they weren't DEC; I think some we got from Burroughs (rebranded I'm sure) but I seem to remember a couple of others as well. We'd use them on carts (they were *very* heavy!), as initially we didn't have enough to go around, so if you were in a cube and not an office you shared a terminal with the cube next to you, swinging the cart back and forth. You spent a lot of time on coding forms so that once you got access to the terminal you didn't waste the time. Eventually we got enough to give every programmer one.
Jack Beckman
2025-12-09 14:20:56 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure ours had those Wyse terminals as well!
clabretro
2025-12-09 04:12:39 +0000 UTCThe library memories are so spot on. Ours had the Wyse-60 terminals. https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/Wyse_WY-60
Mark Heneghan
2025-12-09 04:07:38 +0000 UTC
