Low cost computer graphics in engineering education

Abstract The Apple II is a personal computer which provides 6 color, raster graphics via a 280 h × 192 v frame buffer. A user-programmable MOS Technology 6502 CPU addresses 48 K bytes of RAM, 12 K of ROM. and 4 K of memory-mapped I/O. This system has been evaluated in a variety of applications for which one normally assumes higher resolution, higher cost graphics devices are needed. Examples were drawn from computer aided design, color microfilm previewing, cartography, and aircraft synthesis. The results were encouraging: low resolution raster scan graphics is surprisingly effective for a wide range of applications. As a result, a computer graphics laboratory, with a cluster of 10 Apples as its nucleus, was formed and has been functioning successfully for 4 terms.