PLATO System

The PLATO System (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operation) was an early worldwide network of mainframe workstations originally created in 1960 and in some ways a precursur to the modern GUI based workstation and the Internet. Funded by the NSF and later licensed to CDC. The name PLATO appears to be used to describe the computer itself, the network, the software, and the collection of lessons. The computer had a plasma display with bitmapped graphics. It appears that the frame buffer was the plasma display itself; rather than be raster scanned, the state of each pixel was remembered by the gas discharge itself, once it had initially been addressed. By 1974, this system had multimedia, email, chat rooms, instant messaging, multiplayer games, message forums, and spell checking.

Compare to the Xerox Alto, Xerox Star, and UNIX systems.

Links:

• http://www.platopeople.com/
• http://www.plato.com/community/roadmap/2003/01/research2.html