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- Front_panel abstract "A front panel was used on early electronic computers to display and allow the alteration of the state of the machine's internal registers and memory. The front panel usually consisted of arrays of indicator lamps, toggle switches, and push buttons mounted on a sheet metal face plate. In early machines, CRTs might also be present (as an oscilloscope, or, for example, to mirror the contents of Williams-Kilburn tube memory). Prior to the development of CRT system consoles, many computers such as the IBM 1620 had console typewriters.Usually the contents of one or more hardware registers would be represented by a row of lights, allowing the contents to be read directly when the machine was stopped. The switches allowed direct entry of data and address values into registers or memory.On some machines, certain lights and switches were reserved for use under program control. These were often referred to as sense lights and sense switches. For example, the original Fortran compiler for the IBM 704 contained specific statements for testing and manipulation of the 704's sense lights and switches. These switches were often used by the program to control optional behavior, for example information might be printed only if a particular sense switch was set.Operating systems made for computers with blinkenlights, for example, RSTS/E and RSX-11, would frequently have an idle task blink the panel lights in some recognizable fashion. System programmers often became very familiar with these light patterns and could tell from them how busy the system was and, sometimes, exactly what it was doing at the moment. The Master Control Program for the Burroughs Corporation B6700 mainframe would display a large block-letter "B" when the system was idle.Switches and lights required little additional logic circuitry and usually no software support, important when logic hardware components were costly and software often limited.This baroque style of front panels began to die out in 1964 when Seymour Cray designed his CDC 6600 supercomputer with a very simple and elegant display console containing only 2 CRT displays and a keyboard, replacing all the hundreds of switches, buttons, and blinking lights. The 6600 had support from ten supporting "peripheral processors" whose duties included reading the keyboard and driving the graphics displays.Early microcomputers such as the 1975 Altair 8800 also relied on front panels, but since the introduction of the Apple II in June 1977, the vast majority of micros came with keyboards and connections for TV screens or other monitors.".
- Front_panel thumbnail 360-91-panel.jpg?width=300.
- Front_panel wikiPageID "4793390".
- Front_panel wikiPageRevisionID "597618922".
- Front_panel hasPhotoCollection Front_panel.
- Front_panel subject Category:Early_computers.
- Front_panel subject Category:Early_microcomputers.
- Front_panel type Artifact100021939.
- Front_panel type Computer103082979.
- Front_panel type Device103183080.
- Front_panel type DigitalComputer103196324.
- Front_panel type EarlyComputers.
- Front_panel type EarlyMicrocomputers.
- Front_panel type Instrumentality103575240.
- Front_panel type Machine103699975.
- Front_panel type Object100002684.
- Front_panel type PersonalComputer103918480.
- Front_panel type PhysicalEntity100001930.
- Front_panel type Whole100003553.
- Front_panel comment "A front panel was used on early electronic computers to display and allow the alteration of the state of the machine's internal registers and memory. The front panel usually consisted of arrays of indicator lamps, toggle switches, and push buttons mounted on a sheet metal face plate. In early machines, CRTs might also be present (as an oscilloscope, or, for example, to mirror the contents of Williams-Kilburn tube memory).".
- Front_panel label "Front panel".
- Front_panel label "Painel frontal".
- Front_panel sameAs Painel_frontal.
- Front_panel sameAs m.0cnll5.
- Front_panel sameAs Q5505894.
- Front_panel sameAs Q5505894.
- Front_panel sameAs Front_panel.
- Front_panel wasDerivedFrom Front_panel?oldid=597618922.
- Front_panel depiction 360-91-panel.jpg.
- Front_panel isPrimaryTopicOf Front_panel.
