General Information

Serial #

6588

Part Number

9

Total Parts

12

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Metal and wood-fibre board desk.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

158.0 cm

Width

80.5 cm

Height

73.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Computing Technology

Category

Digital peripheral devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Norpak

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

1980'S

Canada

Part of Norpak Information Provider System (IPS)-2 Designed, developed & built in Canada as par to the Telidon system.The Telidon program began on August 15, 1978 and ended on March 31, 1985. The Information Provider System 2 (IPS-2) systems were purchased by service providers, like Informart, and made available to professional artists use to create content for Telidon field trails. This example was used by the National Museum of Science and Technology.

Function

A table used as a work station to for an Information Provider System 2 (IPS-2) system. It allows components to be bolted into an equipment rack and monitors and a keyboard to be used on the table surface. Attached to this table are 1987.0953.5 - .7, and a PDP 11/03 computer. The PIS-2 was a picture creation system used for Telidon. Page creation systems were meant to be used by professional artists hired by service providers to create and provide content for Telidon system databases, often in the form of commercial art.

Technical

The images created for the Telidon System needed to be transmitted via a 1200 baud modem over narrow bandwidth telephone line. Accordingly, it was important for designers to make sure the system used a very small amount of data. The was especially the case as research conducted by Communications Research Center psychologists had determined that the system needed to be able to load images in about under 20 seconds as, otherwise, users would lose patience. Designers therefore worked to create a fairly efficient encoding and to get the number of bytes per page down, their target being the 1 to 2 kilobyte range. The system used a PDP 11 computer, a decoder and a floppy disk drive. The PDP 11 computer was an early version of the smallest of the mini computers, and contributed to the IPS-2 high cost. A professional artist would use the IPS-2 system to create a graphical image, which software then converted into picture description instructions which could be uploaded to a central database, transmitted via a network, received and converted into something displayable on a home television screen by a decoder. While the IPS-2 system was very expensive, according to Douglas O'Brien, it did a great job at creating images for the Telidon system. In 1983, the North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax (NAPLPS) graphics language develop from the Canadian Telidon system was formalized, ratified and adopted as a world standard for graphics transmission by computer.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

On a label on the back portion of the proper right leg: "norpak Canada/ IPS-2 SYSTEM 94-03670-01/ SYSTEM SERIAL No. 6588/ MON-G07 MODEL 87-03720-01/ MON-V23 MODEL 87-03654-01/ PWR CONTROLLER 93-03695-01/ GPP PROCESSOR 93-03679-01/ DUAL DISK DRIVE 88-10004-01/ COMPUTER 88-10001-01/ KB 5.3 KEYBOARD 93-03303-01/ 115 VAC/ 60 HZ/ 9 AMP"

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Off-white table top, back, and equipment rack with chrome-finished metal legs. There is a blue and silver-coloured label on one of the legs and a yellow sticker with black text and red logo.

Decoration

N/A