Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
INTERGRAPHIC was an attempt to implement an economical way for computers to display graphical content via cheap TV raster displays, during a time when producing graphics on screen meant driving ‘oscilloscope-like’ or Vector Displays, which were very expensive back in the 1960s. The system was designed by Gordon Rose whilst at the University of NSW, Kensington. It potentially allowed for the connection of 50 CRTs as Terminals (Visual Display Units) to a central processing machine, using a multiplexed network configuration. The concept was to enable an office, or local area, network of terminals to connect to any central processor, such as an IBM 360 or any other type of computer system. INTERGRAPHIC would handle the graphical displays on the network, interaction of users & graphic symbols similar to “icons” & user interface buttons of today's operating systems. It would provide a quick & convenient method of drawing to the screen via a microprogrammed command set, stored in core memory.
Gordon Rose had spent time with Prof Murray Allen on the CIRRUS project in Adelaide (see ep10) & was familiar with core memory techniques & microprogrammed instructions. Later, Gordon spent time at MIT in the USA, where he became familiar with Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad system, & he cites his work as reference no.1 in his article: “INTERGRAPHIC, A Microprogrammed Graphical-Interface Computer” in 1967. Sutherland had pioneered GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) in 1963, which combined the use of a Light Pen as a way to interact with icons & graphics on screen to “drive” software to perform functions. He is largely attributed as the doyen of computer graphics. However, Sutherland’s system was expensive because it utilised vector displays & used the host computer for all functions. Gordon wanted to reduce the complexity of providing graphics on displays. Firstly, by freeing up resources from the host computer system & handling graphical tasks in a separate subsystem, he called INTERGRAPHIC. This would then drive low-cost CRT displays (modified TVs), networked around an office. Theoretically, INTERGRAPHIC was responsive enough that it could drive 50 terminals simultaneously, each with its own independent graphical display. Key to this, he devised a way to store “strokes” commonly used to make virtually any graphical shape, into microprogrammed instructions stored in core memory. This meant users could use simple commands to draw anything they wanted to the screen. To demonstrate the idea, Gordon produced Japanese Kanji characters & a world map to showcase its versatility.
A Light Pen was also used with INTERGRAPHIC, allowing users to draw, select & interact with the host computer system. The physical network was a coaxial cable connected to each terminal in a chain that looped back to the main INTERGRAPHIC system. This allowed it to address each screen independently by updating screens using a “packet data” approach, where the address for each machine would be unique. The coax was bi-directional, which allowed the Light Pen to “talk back” to INTERGRAPHIC, so that it could then prompt the host computer to perform functions or draw to the screen. The network speed was ~10MHz to produce graphical content initially for 13 terminals with a potential for 50 connected CRTs.
INTERGRAPHIC was essentially a vector-to-scanline converter system with a network function. How exactly the conversion took place isn’t entirely clear. However, Dr Stephen Jones speculates that it must have been a vector screen with some sort of camera “videoing” the vector screen & thus converting the content to something a CRT could then display. Interestingly, INTERGRAPHIC was the 1st computer device to be built in Australia, using the new “Integrated Circuit” technology developed by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments in 1958. It took several more years for the technology to arrive in Australia, at a price point affordable to Australian-based projects, with INTERGRAPHIC being the 1st. This allowed it to be built at a much lower cost & with more capability than would otherwise be possible using individual components.
Sadly, INTERGRAPHIC was not fully realised, & while a system was built & tested, it isn’t known exactly how many terminals were connected to an INTERGRAPHIC-enabled computer. UNSW had an IBM360/50 at the time, & Gordon mentions in his article that “soon 13 terminals would be connected” to it via INTERGRAPHIC. Whether this actually happened is unknown. Gordon did, however, present a paper at the 3rd Australian Computer Conference entitled "Economical, graphical-communication techniques for multiple console operation" in May 1966. As Stephen Jones mentions in the episode, the key takeaways of the project are the 3 images published, which show the Kanji characters & the map displayed on CRTs.
Gordon attributes Prof Murray Allen, Prof P.D. Jones, M. Macaulay, G.P. Bowen, R.B. Stanton for inspiration, & R.B. Chorley & Keith Titmuss for lab assistance.
INTERGRAPHIC was an attempt to implement an economical way for computers to display graphical content via cheap TV raster displays, during a time when producing graphics on screen meant driving ‘oscilloscope-like’ or Vector Displays, which were very expensive back in the 1960s. The system was designed by Gordon Rose whilst at the University of NSW, Kensington. It potentially allowed for the connection of 50 CRTs as Terminals (Visual Display Units) to a central processing machine, using a multiplexed network configuration. The concept was to enable an office, or local area, network of terminals to connect to any central processor, such as an IBM 360 or any other type of computer system. INTERGRAPHIC would handle the graphical displays on the network, interaction of users & graphic symbols similar to “icons” & user interface buttons of today's operating systems. It would provide a quick & convenient method of drawing to the screen via a microprogrammed command set, stored in core memory.
Gordon Rose had spent time with Prof Murray Allen on the CIRRUS project in Adelaide (see ep10) & was familiar with core memory techniques & microprogrammed instructions. Later, Gordon spent time at MIT in the USA, where he became familiar with Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad system, & he cites his work as reference no.1 in his article: “INTERGRAPHIC, A Microprogrammed Graphical-Interface Computer” in 1967. Sutherland had pioneered GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) in 1963, which combined the use of a Light Pen as a way to interact with icons & graphics on screen to “drive” software to perform functions. He is largely attributed as the doyen of computer graphics. However, Sutherland’s system was expensive because it utilised vector displays & used the host computer for all functions. Gordon wanted to reduce the complexity of providing graphics on displays. Firstly, by freeing up resources from the host computer system & handling graphical tasks in a separate subsystem, he called INTERGRAPHIC. This would then drive low-cost CRT displays (modified TVs), networked around an office. Theoretically, INTERGRAPHIC was responsive enough that it could drive 50 terminals simultaneously, each with its own independent graphical display. Key to this, he devised a way to store “strokes” commonly used to make virtually any graphical shape, into microprogrammed instructions stored in core memory. This meant users could use simple commands to draw anything they wanted to the screen. To demonstrate the idea, Gordon produced Japanese Kanji characters & a world map to showcase its versatility.
A Light Pen was also used with INTERGRAPHIC, allowing users to draw, select & interact with the host computer system. The physical network was a coaxial cable connected to each terminal in a chain that looped back to the main INTERGRAPHIC system. This allowed it to address each screen independently by updating screens using a “packet data” approach, where the address for each machine would be unique. The coax was bi-directional, which allowed the Light Pen to “talk back” to INTERGRAPHIC, so that it could then prompt the host computer to perform functions or draw to the screen. The network speed was ~10MHz to produce graphical content initially for 13 terminals with a potential for 50 connected CRTs.
INTERGRAPHIC was essentially a vector-to-scanline converter system with a network function. How exactly the conversion took place isn’t entirely clear. However, Dr Stephen Jones speculates that it must have been a vector screen with some sort of camera “videoing” the vector screen & thus converting the content to something a CRT could then display. Interestingly, INTERGRAPHIC was the 1st computer device to be built in Australia, using the new “Integrated Circuit” technology developed by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments in 1958. It took several more years for the technology to arrive in Australia, at a price point affordable to Australian-based projects, with INTERGRAPHIC being the 1st. This allowed it to be built at a much lower cost & with more capability than would otherwise be possible using individual components.
Sadly, INTERGRAPHIC was not fully realised, & while a system was built & tested, it isn’t known exactly how many terminals were connected to an INTERGRAPHIC-enabled computer. UNSW had an IBM360/50 at the time, & Gordon mentions in his article that “soon 13 terminals would be connected” to it via INTERGRAPHIC. Whether this actually happened is unknown. Gordon did, however, present a paper at the 3rd Australian Computer Conference entitled "Economical, graphical-communication techniques for multiple console operation" in May 1966. As Stephen Jones mentions in the episode, the key takeaways of the project are the 3 images published, which show the Kanji characters & the map displayed on CRTs.
Gordon attributes Prof Murray Allen, Prof P.D. Jones, M. Macaulay, G.P. Bowen, R.B. Stanton for inspiration, & R.B. Chorley & Keith Titmuss for lab assistance.
