The Advanced Remote Display Station (also referred to as the ARDS) was a desktop storage-tube-based vector graphics and text terminal produced by Computer Displays, Inc. starting in 1968. It was announced at the 1968 Spring Joint Computer Conference and available by August 1968 for $12,750 (about $114,675 in 2024).
The ARDS was the first commercial product to include a computer mouse as an optional peripheral as early as April 1968 for an additional $1200 (about $10,793 in 2024).[1] [2]
The ARDS was capable of connecting to a computer remotely through a modem, or locally through an RS-232 cable. Computer Displays, Inc. also offered optional graphical input peripherals for the ARDS including a mouse and joystick.
The ARDS began development in early 1965 jointly by MIT's Electronic Systems Laboratory and Project MAC at MIT's CSAIL, with prototypes named the ARDS-I and ARDS-II prior to becoming a commercial product.[3] [4] The first ARDS-I prototype was completed in 1965; an early ARDS-II prototype was functional by May 1967, and was updated in August 1967 with the larger, final display CRT.
The display of the commercially produced ARDS was a Tektronix Type 611 direct-view storage tube, meaning that once graphics or text were drawn onto the screen, they could not be erased individually without erasing the entire screen.[5] This was attributed to the terminal's relatively low cost and intended remote use over narrow-bandwidth telephone lines. Filling the entire display with 4000 alphanumeric characters took about 33 seconds.
The ARDS's mouse did not use a rolling ball to track movement, but rather two perpendicularly mounted wheels on the bottom and three buttons on top, much like the mouse used during The Mother of All Demos.[6]
The ARDS 100A was released as the successor to the ARDS in 1969.[7] It was priced at under $8000, much lower than the original ARDS. Along with the original ARDS's mouse and joystick, it added a graphics tablet as an input option.[8]
Computer Displays, Inc. was acquired by Adage, another graphics terminal manufacturer, in 1970.[9] By 1971, another ARDS model was being sold under Adage as the ARDS 100B.[10]