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 An original Imlac PDS-1 from 1969 | |
| Industry | Electronics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1968 in Needham, Massachusetts |
| Defunct | 1979 |
| Fate | Acquired by Hazeltine Corporation |
| Products |
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IMLAC Corporation was an American electronics company in Needham, Massachusetts, that manufactured graphical display systems, mainly the PDS-1 and PDS-4, in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The PDS-1 debuted in late 1969 at that year's Fall Joint Computer Conference.[1][2][3] It was the first low-cost[4] commercial realization of a highly interactive computer graphics display with motion. The PDS-1's initial selling price was $9450 for single units, and down to $6545 per unit in larger quantities.[2] The PDS-1 was functionally similar to the much bigger IBM 2250, which cost 30 times more. It was a significant step forward towards computer workstations and modern displays.
The PDS-1 consisted of a CRT monitor, keyboard, light pen, and a control panel on a small desk with most electronic logic in the desk pedestal. The electronics included a simple 16-bit minicomputer, 8-16 kilobytes of magnetic-core memory, and a display processor for driving CRT beam movements. By 1971 a mouse for the PDS-1 was available.[5]
IMLAC is not an acronym, but is the name of a poet-philosopher from Samuel Johnson's novel, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.[6]
- ^ Computers and Automation (PDF). December 1969. pp. 51–52.
- ^ a b Datamation (PDF). December 1969. pp. 246–247.
- ^ Electronics (PDF). November 10, 1969. pp. 161–165.
- ^ "The computer display review" (PDF). March 1970. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2024.
- ^ Modern Data (PDF). June 1971. p. 50.
- ^ PDS-4 system reference manual: Preliminary. IMLAC Corporation, 1974.