The VT100 was a video terminal made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) which became the de facto standard used by terminal emulators. In fact, if one looks up video terminal in the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, the picture is of a VT100. Jump to: navigation, search A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. ... Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering company in the American computer industry. ... De facto is a Latin expression that means in fact or in practice. It is commonly used as opposed to de jure (meaning by law) when referring to matters of law or governance or technique (such as standards), that are found in the common experience as created or developed without... A terminal emulator, terminal application, term, or tty for short, is a program that emulates a dumb video terminal within some other display architecture. ...

It was introduced in August 1978, following its predecessor, the VT52, and communicated with its host system over serial lines using the ASCII character set and control sequences (a.k.a. escape sequences) standardized by ANSI. Although it was not the first video terminal to implement the ANSI X3.64 control standard (The Heath Company had a microprocessor-based video terminal that implemented a subset of the standard proposed by ANSI in X3.64.), the VT100 enjoyed great popularity and soon became the most widely imitated asynchronous terminal. The VT100 was also the first Digital mass-market terminal to incorporate "graphic renditions" (blinking, bolding, reverse video, and underlining) as well as a selectable 80 or 132 column display. All setup of the VT100 was accomplished using interactive displays presented on the screen; the setup data was stored in non-volatile memory within the terminal. The VT100 also introduced an additional character set that allowed the drawing of on-screen forms. Jump to: navigation, search 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The VT52 was a CRT-based computer terminal produced by Digital Equipment Corporation during the late 1970s. ... Jump to: navigation, search There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... An escape sequence is a series of characters used to trigger some sort of command state in computers and their attached peripherals. ... The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit standards organization that serves as a facilitator for the standardization work of its members in the United States. ...

The control sequences used by the VT100 family are based on the ECMA-48 standard (also ISO/IEC 6429). Ecma International - European association for standardising information and communication systems came into existence in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) changed its name in order to reflect the international activities of the organisation (the long form of ECMA was dropped then, and capitalization changed to reflect this). ... Jump to: navigation, search ISO has many meanings: Iso is the stem of the Latin transliteration of the Greek word ίσος (ísos, meaning equal). The iso- prefix in English derives from this and means equality or similarity. ... The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. ...

The VT100 was also the first of Digital's terminals to be based upon an industry-standard microprocessor (in this case, the Intel 8080). Options could be added to the terminal to support an external printer and additional graphic renditions (the "AVO" Advanced Video Option). The VT100 also became a "platform" on which Digital constructed related products. The VT101 and VT102 were cost-reduced non-expandable follow-on products, with the VT102 including the AVO and serial printer port options of the VT100. The VT105 contained a simple graphics subsystem mostly-compatible with the earlier VT55. The VT125 added an implementation of the byte-efficient ReGIS Remote Graphic Instruction Set. The VT103 added a built-in LSI-11 processor while the VT278 added a built-in PDP-8 processor, allowing the terminal to run Digital's WPS-8 word processing software. The VT180 (codenamed "Robin") added a single-board microcomputer using a Z80 to run CP/M. The Intel 8080 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. ... The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ... The PDP-8 was the first successful commercial minicomputer, produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 1960s. ... WPS-8 was the name of a Word Processing System sold by Digital Equipment Corporation for use with their PDP-8 processors (including the VT78, VT278 DECmate, and PC278 DECmate-II and DECmate-III system-in-a-terminal systems. ... VT180 = VT100 + Z80. ... The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Zilog from 1976 onwards. ... Jump to: navigation, search CP/M is an operating system created for Intel 8080/85 and Zilog Z80 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ...

In 1983, the VT100 was replaced by the more-powerful VT200 series terminals such as the VT220. Jump to: navigation, search 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The VT220 was a terminal produced by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1983 to 1987. ...

See also

• VT05
• VT50
• VT180
• VT220
• VT320
• VT420
• VT525

The VT05 was the first free-standing CRT computer terminal from Digital Equipment Corporation. ... VT180 = VT100 + Z80. ... The VT220 was a terminal produced by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1983 to 1987. ... VT420 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

External links

• DEC video terminal history
• The Archive of Video Terminal Information
• ECMA-48
• Current manufacturer of the VT terminals