Datapro Reports on C25-384-101 Data Communications Terminals Digital Equipment Corporation VT300 Display Family In this report: Product Summary Analysis .................... -102 Editor's Note Competition Digital now offers the VT320, VT320-compatible displays are of­ Characteristics .......... -104 VT330, and VT340 displays, succes- fered by TeleVideo, Wyse Technol­ sors to the VT200 family that pro- ogy, Qume Corporation, Pricing ....................... -105 vide complete backward- Microterm, and Hewlett-Packard. compatibility with improved Microterm also offers VT330- and ergonomics and functionality. Digi­ VT340-compatible displays. AT&T, tal continues to provide service for Falco Data Products, and a few other the older line of displays, however. vendors offer VT320 emulation in their general-purpose ASCII dis­ Description plays. The VT320 is a monochrome dis­ play that provides single-session Vendor support for text-oriented applica­ Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) tions. The VT330 and VT340 both 146 Main Street provide dual sessions and graphics Maynard, MA 01754-2571 capability. (508) 493-5111 Strengths In addition to introducing dual­ Price session support with the VT300 fam­ The North American Version of the ily, Digital designed higher VT320 sells for $575; the interna­ resolution, faster processing speed, tional version of the display costs and greater customization capability $625. The VT330 and VT340 sell for into the displays while lowering $1,995 and $2,795, respectively. prices significantly. Limitations Vendors such as Wyse Technology, TeleVideo, Microterm, and Hewlett­ Packard offer VT clones that provide enhancements such as multiple dis­ play configurations, more function keys and interfacing options, and more internal memory. © 1990 McGraw-Hili. Incorporated. Reproduction Prohibited. Datapro Research. JULY 1990 Delran NJ 08075 USA C25-384-102 Dlttltal Equipment Datapro Reports on Corporetlon Data Communications Terminals VT300 Dlaple, 'eml., amber, or paper-white characters in 80- and 132- column formats. This terminal provides the small­ est footprint of any display yet offered by Digital. Analysis Unlike the VT240 andVT241· displays, the VT330 and VT340 support dual-session capability over one or two wires. The VT330, a monochrome model, comes with a 14-inch screen that displays either green, amber, or paper-white characters in 80- or 132-column text arrangements. For graphics applications, up to four levels of shading are sup­ Product Strategy ported. The VT340 includes a 13-inch screen that Digital Equipment Corporation's VT300 family, supports 16-color graphics and 80- or 132-column which consists of the VT320, VT330, and VT340 text arrangements. display terminals, is the third and most advanced generation of display terminals designed by Digital for communications with applications running on Competitive Position VAX host computers. Digital occupies a distinct but somewhat separate These displays feature full backward compati­ subsection of the asynchronous display market re­ bility with their predecessors, the VT220, VT240, ferred to as the ANSI segment. With the release of and VT241 models, while providing ergonomic the VT100 display in 1978, Digital became the first improvements and better functionality. With the vendor to support the American National Stan­ VT330 and VT340, Digital introduced dual session dards Institute's (ANSI's) X3.64 standard, which capability. The VT300 products operate up to five . was first published in 1977 to standardize control times faster than the older models, provide higher codes for all terminals. To offer VT emulation, resolution, and display fonts that are more pleasing other vendors have also adopted this standard for to the eye. Enhanced setup menus provided with their display terminals. these displays allow greater keyboard customiza­ Various research organizations have esti­ tion. mated that Digital holds from 60 to 80 percent of The VT320 is an entry-level, single-session the ANSI terminal market. Over 1 million VT 100 display that replaces the VT220. Designed for text­ and one millionVT200 family displays were sold oriented applications, the VT320 includes a 14- prior to their discontinuance, and Digital has re­ inch monochrome screen that displays green, cently announced the shipment of the one mil­ lionth VT320 display. The Digital Equipment Cor­ poration VT300/amily con­ sists a/the VT320, VT330, and VT340 displays. The VT320 is a single-session text terminal; the VT330 is a monochrome text/graphics terminal with dual-session capability and support/or six levels 0/ shading; the VT340 is a 16-color text/ graphics terminal also with dual-session capability. JULY 1990 © 1990 McGraw-Hili, Incorporated. Reproduction Prohibited. Datapro Research. Delran NJ 08075 USA Datapro Reports on DItI!tIII Bqulpment C25-384-103 Data Communications CorpoNtIon VT300 DI8pI., '.mll, Terminals and VAX/VMS operating of $12.7 billion, up 11 per­ Company Profile system with announce­ cent from $11.5 billion the ments of new and more previous year. Net income Digital Equipment powerful VAX models. was $1.1 billion, down 8 percent from $1.3 billion Corporation The current VAX family in 1988. According to the consists of V AXstation president's letter to Digi­ desktop workstations; tal's shareholders in MicroVAX departmental 1989, "Digital's revenue systems; VAX 6000 Se­ growth came from over­ ries medium-range sys­ Corporate Company Background seas markets, particularly tems; and VAX 9000 Headquarters Year Founded: 1957 Europe and Japan." 146 Main Street No. Employees: ,125,000 Series high-end main­ Maynard, MA 01754-2571 frames. Management Digital is a leading sup­ Statement (508) 493-5111 In addition to the VAX plier of computer systems Digital has a $1.5 billion family, Digital offers DEC­ In Canada and associated peripher­ dollar investment in new systems that use reduced Digital Equipment of Can­ als, networks, communi­ product development. Ac­ instruction set computing ada, Ltd. cations, software, and cording to the president's (RISC) technology and P.O. Box 13000, 100 Het­ services. The products letter, Digital is "continu­ operate under ULTRIX, zbug Road are used in a variety of ing to invest heavily in Digital's implementation Kanata, ON K2K 2A6 applications in business, VAX and RISC-based sys­ of the UNIX operating (613) 592-5111 industry, government, and tems and VMS and UNIX scientific areas. Both di­ system. European Headquarters software." Within the next rect and indirect channels is in Geneva, Switzerland. To support its systems, year, "Digital's strategy is are used to market and General International Digital offers disk, storage to focus on the computing support products world­ Headquarters is in Acton, array, and solidstate environment of the 1990s. wide. MA. memory products, optical Digital will offer the widest In 1977, Digital introduced disks, tape devices, dis­ selection of technology Officers the VAX Series of 32-bit plays, and printers. Be­ and continue to make sig­ Pres.: Kenneth H. Olsen minicomputers, one of the sides hardware and nificant investments in Sr. VP, Mrktg., Sales, Ser­ most successful product software, Digital offers a R&D and new products in vice, Channels, Interna­ launches in computer in­ range of communications response to dynamically tional: John J. Shields dustry history. Since in­ and networking products changing customer Sr. VP, Eng. & Mfg.: John troducing the first VAX, and services. needs." F. Smith the 11/780, Digital has Pres. & CEO, European Financial Profile continued to enhance the Operations: Pier Carlo For the 1989 fiscal year, basic VAX architecture Falotti Digital reported revenues The rest of the ANSI market is controlled by HP 700/32 displays boast VT320-compatibility general-purpose ASCII display vendors that offer with enhancements such as more programmable VT clones and VT emulation. The VT100 is the function keys, greater interfacing flexibility, higher most widely emulated asynchronous terminal, with resolution, faster transmission speeds, multiple over one million imitations sold. Digital also suf­ display configurations, and more screens of inter­ fered competition from numerous low-priced nal storage. The TeleVideo and Wyse models sell VT200 imitators, which caused the vendor to ad­ for only $499. MMicroterm's 5530 display, a just prices accordingly. VT330-compatible product priced at $1,495, pro­ At present, there is a small handful ofVT300- vides 16 shades of gray. Microterm also offers a compatible displays on the market. Wyse Technol­ VT340-compatible terminal, the 5540, which sells ogy's WY-185, Qume Corporation's QVT323-EV, for only $2,350 and provides color mapping for Microterm's model 5520, and Hewlett-Packard's each individual session and 16 colors from a © 1990 McGraw·HiII, Incorporated. Reproduction Prohibited. Datapro Research. JULY 1990 Delran NJ 08075 USA C25-384-104 Digital Equipment Datapro Reports on Corporation Data Communications Terminals VT300 Display Family 262, 144-color palette. Both the 5530 and 5540 sup­ Date First Installed: VT320-September 1987; VT330 port transmission speeds as high as 38.4K bps. A and VT340-May 1987. few vendors, including AT&T, Falco Data Prod­ Number of Installed Units: Over 1 million VT300 termi­ ucts, and Visentech Systems, have incorporated nals have been installed. VT320 emulation into their general-purpose ASCII displays. Vendors continue to play the better price/ Serviced by: Digital Equipment Corporation. performance game. It appears, however, that