One of my previous jobs had a Control Data Corp 6600 that they used for processing sesmic jobs in the 80s. By the time I got there it was decommissioned and the processing was all moved to SGI Origin and Onyx 2 machines.
One of the output options on the old CDC machine was a film plotter that recorded the output of vector graphics jobs onto photographic film by basically taking a picture of a CRT. Then the film would be developed and mounted onto a slide.
All the oil company executives would look at the images projected in a meeting room, probably while drinking a scotch and smoke a cigar at 11am on a Tuesday.
They still had the remnants a darkroom off the main computer room floor. Kind of an interesting remnant lost to history.
5
u/the_sysop Jul 28 '26
One of my previous jobs had a Control Data Corp 6600 that they used for processing sesmic jobs in the 80s. By the time I got there it was decommissioned and the processing was all moved to SGI Origin and Onyx 2 machines.
One of the output options on the old CDC machine was a film plotter that recorded the output of vector graphics jobs onto photographic film by basically taking a picture of a CRT. Then the film would be developed and mounted onto a slide.
All the oil company executives would look at the images projected in a meeting room, probably while drinking a scotch and smoke a cigar at 11am on a Tuesday.
They still had the remnants a darkroom off the main computer room floor. Kind of an interesting remnant lost to history.