The DEC VT52 Video Terminal

DEC VT52

Construction:          Single unit
Display:               24x80 character cells
Character matrix:      7x7
Screen size:           8.3" x 4.1"
Character set:         Complete US ASCII (128 codes)
Keys:                  63 in ANSI X4.14-1971 typewriter layout
Auxilliary keypad:     19 keys (digits, arrows, function keys)
Interface:             RS-232/V.24, 20mA
Communication Speeds:  75,110,150,300,600,1200,2400,4800,9600 bps
Dimensions:            14.1" x 20.9" x 27.2"
Minimum table depth:   17.7"
Weight:                44 pounds

Date: 1975. Digital's first upper/lower case video terminal. Its previous video terminals, the VT05 and VT50 (both of which we had in our PDP-11 machine room 1975-76), were upper-case only.

In 1978, DEC announced the VT78, which was a word processer made by putting a PDP-8 computer chip and some memory inside a VT52 and adding an external RX02 dual 8-inch floppy disk drive. This was the predecessor to the DECmate.

Color photo courtesy of Mike Fine, 1 July 2020. If you click on it, you'll also see the PDP-11/03 it is sitting on top of.