catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  bitmap display
       
           A computer output device where each pixel
          displayed on the monitor screen corresponds directly to one
          or more bits in the computer's video memory.  Such a
          display can be updated extremely rapidly since changing a
          pixel involves only a single processor write to memory
          compared with a terminal or VDU connected via a serial
          line where the speed of the serial line limits the speed at
          which the display can be changed.
       
          Most modern personal computers and workstations have
          bitmap displays, allowing the efficient use of graphical user
          interfaces, interactive graphics and a choice of on-screen
          fonts.  Some more expensive systems still delegate graphics
          operations to dedicated hardware such as graphics
          accelerators.
       
          The bitmap display might be traced back to the earliest days
          of computing when the Manchester University Mark I(?)
          computer, developed by F.C. Williams and T. Kilburn shortly
          after the Second World War.  This used a storage tube as its
          working memory.  Phosphor dots were used to store single
          bits of data which could be read by the user and interpreted
          as binary numbers.
       
          [Is this history correct?  Was it ever used to display
          "graphics"?  What was the resolution?]
       
          (2002-05-15)