History of Computer Graphics: Dlr Associates Series

Table of Contents

Preface

1

History of Graphic Communication

2

Engineering Computer Graphics

3

History of Computer graphics

4

Automated Drafting

5

Computer Languages 1959- 67

6

Automated Drafting 1963- 1967

7

CRT Graphics 1963-1969

8

Computer Graphics 1968

9

Hardware Purchases 1968-76

10

Continuing Education 1968-76 University of Nebraska at Omaha

11

CS 221: CAD for Engineers

University of Nebraska at Omaha

12

CS 321: CAD Animation

University of Nebraska at Omaha

13

CS 421: CADAM Simulation

14

EG 109: Engineering Graphics

15

EG 110: Engineering Graphics

16

EG 321: Computer Graphics

17

EG 411: Computer-aided Architectural Graphics

18

Post Graduate Work, 1982-84

19

History of AutoCAD

20

EG 208: Engineering Graphics

21

History of AutoSketch

22

EG 209: Microcomputer Graphics

23

Evolution of Graphic Devices

24

Graphical User Interfaces

25

Graphical Environment Manager

26

Microsoft Windows

27

History of Internet Graphics

28

History of Database Construction

29

Dbase Computer Storage

30

History of Computer Graphics

Preface

This book reflects the many changes that computer graphics technology has under gone in my working life time. I graduated from a teacher’s college in 1963. There was not a computer of any kind on campus, imagine my shock when my very first college employer (Omaha University) required me to know something about an IBM 1620 and a key punch machine! The first part of this book is an account of that experience at Omaha University and later the University of Nebraska at Omaha. When I moved to Clemson University in 1976, they had a computer and a large Calcomp Plotter but nothing else in the way of computer graphics hardware or software. So, except for a few short sections in chapter one, this history begins with the events of 1963 and proceeds to document what happened to computer graphics for engineering design and manufacturing as practiced by an engineer or technician at Clemson University. The next section of the book contains my experiences as a self-employed consultant (1993-present), my consulting started in 1984 after I completed a PhD in Data Systems Engineering. In 1993, I left full time teaching and became Professor Emeritus at Clemson University. I wanted to start my own consulting company, DLR Associates. Oddly enough, most of my first consulting in computer graphics took place in the Omaha and Pennsylvania areas - not South Carolina. My contacts came from my paper presentations at various ASEE meetings and the annual national distance learning conferences held at the University of Maine. I took a year off to accept a Fulbright Scholarship Nomination from the University of Rookee, India. I was listed as an international member in the Who’s Who Directory of the computer graphics industry. In a nut shell, that is who I am. Why, then, did I decide to write this book?

The purpose of History of Computer Graphics is to provide the reader with a comprehensive, practical historical guide. This guide is designed to aid both the practicing professional and the college student to appreciate the history of producing engineering graphics from a laptop based graphics workstation as we do today. The material in this book is designed to introduce the reader to each part of this history, step-by-step to enable one to understand the antique pieces of hardware and software that the pioneers of computer graphics used in their daily work places.

The current state-of-the-art for producing engineering graphics is nothing like what came before it. One of the present day uses of the graphics workstation is the production of three-dimensional shapes, wire forms, solids, surface specifications and diagrams. Have you every wondered how this was accomplished by those engineers who used a computer built in the 1960’s? This book shows how this was done. I have used portions from my books published back then by Marcel Dekker, Prentice Hall and Wadsworth Publishing and the comments from those readers who used them. I have even added some thoughts on how these historical attempts affected what we see today on our I pads. These early attempts and the modifications over the years have come from the thousands of readers who have used chapters to introduce computer graphics for mechanical engineering design modeling, manufacturing, building construction and other applications. The historical trail of computer graphics begins with a very small computer, a key punch machine and a chain driven line printer. Yes, you can actually produce graphics from just these three items - if that is all you have. The trail ends with the various CAD packages that come on most lap tops sold today.

History of Computer Graphics can also be used for a continuing engineering education seminar. For distance learners or short, two day, seminars, the chapters dealing with CAD computer program extensions may be omitted without destroying the continuity of the book. The selection of material in this book was based on the premise that the reader has no exposure to the development of computer graphics, how it evolved or the efforts of the early pioneers working to perfect the technology that we take for granted. Therefore, many basic developments are included with detailed explanations. This makes if possible to keep the emphasis on the historical account and not on the use of existing CAD packages. The unique features of this book are:

•   Historical account of computer graphics,

•   Descriptions of antique computers and equipment,

•   Review of software development for computer graphics, and

•   Industrial use of computer graphics over the last sixty years.

History of Computer Graphics makes no claim to originality of the hardware items shown or the software functions selected. This book has drawn heavily on my experiences teaching continuing engineering education and writing distance learning packages. Whenever I found an interesting tid bit about the history of computer graphics, I placed it in a three ring notebook. This book was the best of the history notebook. The unique character of this book lies in its historical orientation, the sequencing of the topics which are discussed and the documentary and user-oriented manner in which they are presented.

Dan Ryan

Professor Emeritus

Clemson University

1

History of Graphic Communication

This chapter is where it started for mankind and the struggle for a form of graphic communication that would be understood by all. I would encourage you, the reader, to skip over those chapter sections of this introduction that you have already completed in your study of engineering graphics. This historical account was completed after fifteen years of consulting and thirty years of teaching engineering graphics. Whenever I found a useful description of an antique piece of computer equipment or a listing of an antique computer programming language, I put it in a large three ring notebook. This publication is the best of the notebook.

1.1 Graphic communication

Graphic communication has been part of human history since earliest times. Early man painted on the walls of caves. These paintings depicted daily activities. The search for food, protection of the tribe and important milestones such as the discovery of fire were depicted on the walls of human habitations. The importance of saving certain happenings has also been a driving force in our transformation from early times. The best recorders (painters) have left permanent records for us to study.

Modern man continues this human compulsion to record certain events. Records now take the form of digital photos, video streams and electronic storage media. Graphic communication has not changed much since the beginning of time. We see and record by any means available to us. A picture was created and saved for use later. Since the very beginning, human beings have created pictures that were first formed as mental images. Because these mental images would otherwise soon be forgotten, they were written down. This writing process first took the form of life-size drawings. Because wall drawings took considerable time and skill to create, a smaller type of picture painting became popular. This smaller form was developed by the Egyptians and others in a script like form. A combination of small pictures and symbols were used to describe such things as road building, temple construction and important events of the day.

Graphic recording was not widespread at this time in history. In fact, a decline in recorded events took place during the period called the Dark Ages. Just prior to this period, two groups of people were involved in graphic communication. One group used a high degree of graphics in their daily lives, the other very little. During the Dark Ages, the non-graphic users overpowered the graphic users and forced the graphic communication of the day to be practiced in relative isolation. Graphic communication then became the tool of the common man and was taught to all persons as a universal written language. Even if two groups spoke in different verbal patterns, the pictures that were passed were understandable.

1.2 History of graphic images

The history of graphic images extends from classical antiquity to modern times. The exact history was hard to trace as a continuous process. There were many examples in the record, examples of the graphics used were simply not available for study. This is particularly true when we go back beyond the invention. The continuation back in time depends on graphic images carved on temple walls or pressed into clay tablets. Beyond that, natural formations such as cave walls were all that was available to study.

If we limit our search to papyrus, the graphics of Egypt follow those of Babylonia, the earliest in the world’s history. Egyptian origin have been investigated with fairly food success. English archaeologists and French explorers such as Monge were given much of the credit for finding the key that unlocked the mystery of the graphic images used by early Egyptians. The oldest Egyptian images. Belonging to the First and Second Dynasties, consist of carvings on small tombs and monuments. During the excavation of one site, archaeologists found relics of carved images that were placed at the time of prehistoric man. If this had remained a single incident, the find would have been very significant, but later finds at other sites have led experts to believe that these images belonged to another, less advanced race, perhaps contemporizes of the first Egyptian kings.

1.3 Graphic images from antiquity

The classical antiquity of graphics includes three main periods; early Egyptian, Greek and Roman. A developmental procedure can be used for each time period.

Egyptian, was believed to have been invented by the god Thoth who instructed the Nile people in its use. It was found fully developed on the most ancient monuments and continued in use until the Middle Ages. The individual symbols used in hieroglyphics numbered nearly 500. These images were never simplified into a form of script. It was remarkable because it retained the most primitive form of picture writing. The Egyptians used; phonetic signs, ideograms and determinatives. For example, verbs of motion were determined by a pair of legs. The prevailing orthography required that each word be written by means of its ideogram. As in ancient forms of graphics except the Assyro-Bablonian cuneiform, only consonants were used. The vowels were left for the reader to supply.

Although this type of graphics was well adopted for monumental inscriptions cut in stone, and lent itself admirably to the creation of decorative effects, it was unwieldy where rapid communication was needed. At a very early period another form of graphics called Hieratic came into use for graphics on papyrus. It was interesting to note that 5000 years after the Egyptians developed hieroglyphics, a form of computer graphics called PLATO uses similar picture representations. Picture formations similar to those invented for hieroglyphics are used today to help elementary school children learn how to read.

Greek, in developing the history of graphics for Greek influences, we will look at the Archaic, Attic, and Hellenistic time periods. The Archaic period introduced color to graphic images. Examples were found in the remains from 480 B.C. to the Persian wars. The Attic period was from 480 B.C. to about 300 B.C. and it introduced correct drawing in profile with the concept of perspective and view points. The Hellenistic period graphics were used for the decoration of buildings and temples. The most important advance was based on Cimon’s theory and Agatharchus’s application of perspective with shading techniques which were described in Agatharchus’s book.

Roman, in developing the history of Roman graphics we will deal only with the late Republic and the Empire periods because the use of graphics in Rome came about from the hands of prisoners captured from the campaigns against the Greek cities. The Romans loved everything Greek and copied the best features of the Hellenistic period and invented modifications that survived until modern times. The Roman period of classical antiquity lasted until the time of Augustus. The century and a half that followed was known as the Golden Age of Graphics. The decline of graphics began before the time of Septimus Severus and was complete by the time of Constantine except for the development of practical constructive ability.

1.4 Graphics used in the middle ages

The middle ages of graphics parallel the designation applied to the historical period between classical antiquity and modern times. The beginning and end of this period were not very definite. Some researchers regard the period as the beginning with the overthrow of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, and ending in the fifteenth century. Most scholars prefer to regard the Renaissance as the beginning of the modern period. To be consistent with the dates used at the beginning of this chapter, we will date the period from the end of the Roman Empire in 476 to the discovery of America in 1492. The three influences on the development of graphics in the middle period were the early Christian, Romanesque, and Gothic.

Christian, following the earlier Roman civilization, absorbed to a considerable degree all the graphics skills invented by the Egyptians, passed by the Hebrew tribes, carried by the Phoenicians through trade, developed by the Greeks, and applied in Latin manuscripts. The Christians had a highly developed system for graphics, which evolved slowly during the Middle Ages. They provided common script for use throughout the Christian world.

Romanesque, like the Greeks before them divided the graphic skills into major art forms and minor ones. The major forms contained graphics for architecture, literature, sculpture and painting. The minor forms contained graphics language, engraving, etching and drafting. The advances made in the major forms during the Middle Ages increased the usefulness of the minor forms. Many of Europe’s largest structures were designed during this period. The site of Norte Dame cathedral was a study in these skills through the ages. The present day cathedral was situated on the Ile de la Cite in Paris. The remains of a temple of Jupiter Cernaunus and the image of a horned god were found in about 375, when one of the two original churches was erected. The second church was built in 520 in the Romanesque style. The first stained glass window in France was used in this second church.

Gothic, both the Christian and Romanesque style churches in Paris were partly destroyed by the Normans in 857. Only the Romanesque was repaired. By 1140, the early Christian was falling into ruins and the Bishop of Paris resolved to replace both old structures with a single edifice of Gothic design. The cornerstone for Norte Dame was laid in 1163 by Pope Alexander III. The cathedral was the first Gothic design, which later flowered throughout the Western world.

1.5 Graphics used in the renaissance

The Renaissance was considered to be the time in history when graphics for art and engineering became a tool of the common man. Graphics for the masses became possible with the invention of printing from movable type in 1450. Johannes Gutenberg established a printing plant in the city of Mainz in 1442, and by 1450 the production of books was commonplace. His production of the 42-line Bible in 1450 made the printing process famous.

The mass production of printed text was accomplished by graphic techniques for diagrams, technical drawings and other graphic illustrations. At this point graphics became clear, not intermixed with art, architecture or other forms. Before this time, graphics were single copy processes, all the following accounts of graphics were multiple. Because of this graphic process, many Renaissance notables will be by passed for discussion. The most famous of these was Leonardo da Vinci.

Renaissance graphics can be grouped into; line engraving, etching, wood engraving, illustration and sketching.

Line engraving, was a form of mass-produced graphics originating in Italy and Germany during the fifteenth century. It was the art of producing incised lines on a hard surface. The printing of the copy was done by inking the relief lines and pressing the paper onto the hard surface. The line engraving was outlines only, but gradually shading was introduced.

Etching, was an improvement over line engraving. In etching, the plate was covered with a coating, usually a varnish, into which the graphics was scratched with a needle. The drafting needle was a finer device than the burin used in line engraving. The metal plate was then immersed in acid, which ate the graphics line work into the metal.

Wood engraving, was used in connection with printing by movable type.

Illustration, was used for in the production of maps and detailed diagrams for books. The total history of illustration dates from the Egyptian papyruses to the modern newspaper.

Sketching, in the Renaissance period dealt with both visible and invisible objects. It continues to be a form of graphics in which the hand receives no assistance from mechanical devices, and it allows parts of objects to represented by suggestion, which stimulates the reader’s imagination. An example might be a sketch of a butterfly resting on a branch of a tree. The entire sketch might be completed with a pencil on paper in only shades of gray - yet the suggestion of green foliage, masses of light and shade of the tree were implied to the viewer.

1.6 Engineering graphics from the industrial revolution

Engineering graphics was industrialized by Sir John Hershel at the beginning of the industrial revolution in England. The blueprint, which he invented, was a time honored commercial form traditionally used today for the reproduction of plans and technical drawings. Although the diazo process has taken over a sizable share of the engineering drawing reproduction, blueprints continue to be preferred by thousands of construction and technical firms which still like their blueprints, blue. Blueprinting or the diazo process was an inexpensive contact process which reproduces the same size and requires a translucent original drawing. Commercially sensitized, negative acting blueprint papers were coated with an iron salt solution-developer combination. Exposure to an ultraviolet light source reduces the ferric salts to the ferrous state, and immersion in water forms Prussian blue in the exposed areas. The translucent original drawing can be produced manually or by automatic drafting techniques.

1.7 Computer graphics from the electronic revolution

Automated drafting techniques begin with the electronic revolution, as the next several chapters indicate. In the industrial revolution, a designer used pencils or pens with guides to prepare line work. In the electronic revolution, various items have been added to take advantage of the digital computer (introduced in the next chapter). Engineers still used drafting tables in the electronic revolution - but then the tables had electronic digitizers instead of drafting machines mounted on them. Are we past the electronic revolution? Yes and no. What has happened to the CRT display monitor? It was created in the electronic revolution - but is part of our history of computer graphics now. What about the direct view storage tube (DVST) invented by Tektronix? It, too, is history. This book does not include anything presently for sale at our favorite computer store. It does include anything that is not presently manufactured for sale in the United States.

As you read the rest of these chapters, I will let you decide where the electronic revolution begins and ends. The graphics tablet is now called an IPAD, but it was clearly used, in nearly the same way, fifty years ago. What then is an electronic antique? Is it something that is no longer in use, or is it something that was invented fifty years ago and still used today in our production of computer graphic output?

2

Engineering Computer Graphics

Omaha University 1959-63

Each of the fields of engineering and engineering technology offered at Omaha University from 1959 to 1963; Civil (CE), Engineering Mechanics (EM), Industrial (IE), and Engineering Technology (ET) wanted to use the IBM 1620 that was purchased for the college. I was hired to teach the engineering graphics courses within the ET group. I had been teaching in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I was told that a complete study of engineering graphics must include something about the age of computerization and how it affects work done by an engineer or technician. I found out that engineering students are smart, creative, and slow as far as producing readable graphics. The 1620 was stupid, uncreative, and very fast. The computer took up one side of a normal classroom. It remained on twenty-four hours a day, because if it was shut off, the entire memory was dumped - it needed power to remain alive. Above the computer, some ingenious planner had mounted a series of post office boxes the same size as a punched card. Each opening was labeled with such interesting titles as COBOL, SNOBOL, BASIC, WITRAN and something called idiots compiler. A user had to take one of these compilers and place it on top of the set of instructions for the 1620, and then run it through the card reader on top of the metal cabinet of the computer. The instructions were punched onto paper cards. A row of key punch machines were on the opposite side of the computer room.

The lights on the face of the computer would go crazy and a few minutes later the chain driven line printer would begin to print information on what it understood your instructions to mean. The only device that could print something was this stupid chain driven printer and I had almost decided that I could not get it to draw a graph or a chart to save my soul - when a most interesting thing happened. A senior engineering student was running a program she had written and placed underneath the idiots complier and the line printer began to make strange noises, then the noises stopped and it began to play God Save the Queen. I was amazed.

How did you do that? I asked her.

I used multiple type head strikes so that the chain will vibrate, after I found that out, I tried to get notes out of the multiple strikes. Every tune has only so many notes. Now I can play most anything you would like.

I decided that if the printer could play a song - I could get it to draw pictures!

2.1 The IBM 1620 computer

The IBM 1620 was announced by IBM on October 21, 1959 and marketed as an inexpensive scientific computer. After a total production of about two thousand machines, it was withdrawn on November 19, 1970. Modified versions of the 1620 were used as the CPU of the IBM 1710 and IBM 1720 Industrial Process Control Systems, making it the first digital computer considered reliable enough for real-time process control of factory equipment.

Being variable word length decimal, as opposed to fixed-word-length pure binary, made it an especially attractive first computer to learn on and hundreds of thousands of students had their first experiences with a computer on the IBM 1620. Core memory cycle times were 20 microseconds for the Model I, 10 microseconds for the Model II, about a thousand times slower than typical computer main memory of today. Many of my students at Omaha University called the 1620 a CADET, jokingly meaning Can’t Add, Doesn’t Even Try, referring to the use of addition tables in memory rather than dedicated addition circuitry.

The 1620 was a variable word length decimal (BCD) computer with a memory that could hold anything from 20,000 to 60,000 decimal digits increasing in 20,000 decimal digit increments. (While the 5-digit addresses could have addressed 100,000 decimal digits, no machine larger than 60,000 decimal digits was ever built.) Memory was accessed two decimal digits at the same time (even-odd digit pair for numeric data or one alphanumeric character for text data). Each decimal digit was 6 bits, composed of an odd parity Check bit, a flag bit, and four BCD bits for the value of the digit in the following format:

C F 8 4 2 1

The flag bit had several uses; the least significant digit it was set to indicate a negative number (signed magnitude), it was set to mark the most significant digit of a number (word mark), in the least significant digit of 5-digit addresses it was set for indirect addressing (an option on the 1620 I, standard on the 1620 II). Multi-level indirection could be used (you could even put the machine in an infinite indirect addressing loop), and in the middle 3 digits of 5-digit addresses (on the 1620 II) they were set to select one of 7 index registers. In addition to the valid BCD digit values there were three special digit values and these could not be used in calculations.

2.2 The 1620 flawed architecture

Although the IBM 1620’s architecture was very popular in the scientific and engineering community, computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra pointed out several flaws in its design in, A review of the IBM 1620 data processing system. Among these were that the machine’s Branch and Transmit instruction together with Branch Back allowed a grand total of one level of nested subroutine call, forcing the programmer of any code with more than one level to decide where the use of this feature would be most effective. He also showed how the machine’s paper tape reading support could not properly read paper tapes with record marks on them, since record marks were used to terminate the characters read in storage (one effect of this, although he did not mention it, is that the 1620 cannot duplicate a tape with record marks: when punching a tape and the first record mark that was read in is encountered, the punch instruction punches an EOL on the tape instead and stops punching! However this was not normally considered a problem as tapes were usually duplicated offline.) Most 1620 installations used the more-convenient punch card input/output, when it became available, rather than paper tape. The successor to the 1620, the IBM 1130 was based on a totally different, 16-bit binary architecture.

2.3 IBM 1620 software

IBM supplied decks of punched cards with each instruction on a single IBM 1620 SPS card. Omaha University used the following IBM software for the 1620; 1620 Symbolic Programming System (SPS) (assembly language), FORTRAN - required 40,000 digits or more of memory, GOTRAN a simplified, interpreted version of FORTRAN for load and go operation, GOTRAN was replaced by WITRAN after a year, and Monitor I and monitor II - disk operating systems. The monitors provided disk based versions of 1620 SPS IId, FORTRAN IId as well as a DUP (Disk Utility Program). Both monitor systems required 20,000 digits or more of memory and 1 or more 1311 disk drives.

2.4 IBM 1620 operating procedures

The operating system at Omaha University for the computer consisted of the operator, who would use controls on the computer console to load programs from the available bulk storage media such as decks of punched cards or rolls of paper tape that were kept in cabinets nearby. Later, the model 1311 disc storage device attached to the computer enabled a reduction in the fetch and carry of card decks or paper tape rolls, and a simple monitor operating system could be loaded to help in selecting what to load from disc.

A standard preliminary was to clear the computer memory of any previous user’s detritus - being magnetic cores, the memory retained its last state even if the power had been switched off. This was effected by using the console facilities to load a simple computer program via typing its machine code at the console typewriter, running it, and stopping it. This was not challenging as only one instruction was needed such as 160001000000, loaded at address zero and following. This meant transmit field immediate (the 16: two digit op-codes) to address 00010 the immediate constant field having the value 00000 (five digit operand fields, the second being from address 11 back to 7), decrementing source and destination addresses until such time as a digit with a flag was copied. This was the normal machine code means of copying a constant of up to five digits. The digit string was addressed at its low-order end and extended through lower addresses until a digit with a flag marked its end. But for this instruction, no flag would ever be found because the source digits had shortly before been overwritten by digits lacking a flag. Thus the operation would roll around memory (even overwriting itself) filling it with all zeroes until the operator grew tired of watching the roiling of the indicator lights and pressed the Instant Stop - Single Cycle Execute button. Each 20,000 digit module of memory took just under one second to clear. On the 1620 II this instruction would not work (due to certain optimizations in the implementation). Instead there was a button on the console called Modify which when pressed together with the Check Reset button, when the computer was in Manual mode, would set the computer in a mode that would clear all of memory in a tenth of one second regardless of how much memory you had; when you pressed Start. It also stopped automatically when memory was cleared, instead of requiring the operator to stop it.

Other than typing machine code at the console, a program could be loaded via either the paper tape reader, the card reader, or any disk drive. Loading from either tape or disk required first typing a bootstrap routine on the console typewriter. The card reader made things easier because it had a special Load button to signify that the first card was to be read into the computer’s memory (starting at address 00000) and executed (as opposed to just starting the card reader, which then awaits commands from the computer to read cards) - this is the bootstrap process that gets into the computer just enough code to read in the rest of the code (from the card reader, or disc, or…) that constitutes the loader that will read in and execute the desired program.

Programs were prepared ahead of time, offline, on paper tape or punched cards. But usually the programmers were allowed to run the programs personally, hands-on, instead of submitting them to operators as was the case with mainframe computers at that time. And the console typewriter allowed entering data and getting output in an interactive fashion, instead of just getting the normal printed output from a blind batch run on a pre-packaged data set. As well, there were four program switches on the console whose state a running program could test and so have its behavior directed by its user. The computer operator could also stop a running program (or it may come to a deliberately programmed stop) then investigate or modify the contents of memory: being decimal-based, this was quite easy; even floating-point numbers could be read at a glance. Execution could then be resumed, from any desired point. Aside from debugging, scientific programming is typically exploratory, by contrast to commercial data processing where the same work is repeated on a regular schedule.

2.5 The 1620 console selector switches

The most important items on the 1620’s console were a pair of buttons labeled Insert and Release, and the electric typewriter.

Insert, pressing this key with the computer in manual mode reset the program counter (in the MARS core memory) to zero, switched the computer into Automatic and Insert modes, and simulated the execution of a Read Numeric from Typewriter to address zero (unlocked the typewriter keyboard, shifted the typewriter into numeric mode). Note: unlike a real Read Numeric from Typewriter, Insert mode would force a Release after 100 digits had been typed to prevent overwriting the arithmetic tables.

Release, pressing this key while doing a read from the typewriter terminated the read, switched the computer into manual mode, and locked the typewriter keyboard.

The typewriter was used for operator input/output, both as the main console control of the computer and for program controlled input/output. Later models of the typewriter had a special key marked R-S that combined the functions of the console Release & Start buttons (this would be considered equivalent to an Enter key on a modern keyboard). Note: several keys on the typewriter did not generate input characters, these included Tab and Return (the 1620’s alphanumeric and numeric BCD character sets lacked character codes for these keys).

The next most important items on the 1620’s console were the buttons labeled Start, Stop-SIE, and Instant Stop-SCE.

Start, pressing this key with the computer in manual mode switched the computer to Automatic mode (causing the computer to begin executing at the address in the program counter).

Stop-SIE, pressing this key with the computer in automatic mode switched the computer to manual mode when the currently executing instruction completes. Pressing this key with the computer in manual mode switched the computer into automatic mode for one instruction.

Instant Stop-SCE, pressing this key with the computer in automatic mode switched the computer into automatic/manual mode at the end of the current memory cycle. Pressing this key with the computer in manual or automatic/manual mode switched the computer into automatic mode and executed one memory cycle.

For program debugging there were the buttons labeled Save & Display MAR.

Save, pressing this key with the computer in manual mode saved the program counter into another register in the MARS core memory and activated Save mode. When a Branch Back instruction was executed in Save mode, it copied the saved value back to the program counter (instead of copying the return address register as it normally did) and deactivated Save mode. This was used during debugging to remember where the program had been stopped to allow it to be resumed