A TV output means you need to create (and have memory dedicated to) the video. A... | Hacker News

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		SoftTalker 8 months ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Altair at 50: Remembering the first Personal Compu... A TV output means you need to create (and have memory dedicated to) the video. A serial port is much simpler.

rbanffy 8 months ago [–]

A 16x64 character screen like the TRS-80 needed 1k of RAM. IIRC, the Altair didn’t have that much memory out of the box.

The video memory would either be in the computer or the terminal. At least if it were in the computer, you could use it for other stuff.

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