from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
bitmap display
bitmapped display
<hardware> 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)