Mini-computer control of a stereo graphics display

Abstract

Three‐dimensional models of complex molecules, electron density contours, and text may be generated graphically and in stereo on a color television monitor by a 4096 word mini‐computer and prototype display system assembled from commercially available components. Interactive features include translation and rotation of the asymmetric unit for packing studies, rotation of the stereo image, and molecular geometry calculations.

The first years of the Protein Data Bank

“…At the American Crystallographic Association meeting in Ottawa in 1971,12 Syntex Analytical demonstrated a novel 3D color (512 X 512) raster display with ingenious use of 4,096 words of CPU memory (Data General Nova with a blazing 1-ms cycle time) and a disc with eight read heads, which could store programs, atomic information, and two complete, two-color stereo images, years before color raster graphics became commercially available (Table 1). This prototype (Willoughby et al, 1974) was delivered subsequently to my laboratory in Texas but, thanks primarily to 1964 1965 1968 1970 1971 1975 1976 1977 1978 1981 1982 1985 1987 1988 1990 First interactive macromolecular display (the "Kluge," Project Program ORTEP (Carroll Johnson) company leadership, the display was not developed commercially, despite Bob Spark's genius at creating cutting-edge technology.I3 At that time, a few sensitive crystallographers were too easily offended by the jagged lines representing atomic bonds; the antialiasing algorithm had not yet been invented.…”

Plot of packing programPOP1

“…An obvious way to obtain immediate results is to use an interactive display system employing a TV monitor for image display (Willoughby, Morimoto, Sparks & Meyer, 1974;Nagano, 1976;Sakurai, 1976). The application of this kind of program is rather limited, however, since most laboratories are not equipped with the necessary hardware.…”