[QuadList] Early CMX Documentation

[Chill315 at aol.com]

The CMX 600 was a unique system.  I saw only one of them, and it was  at 
One Pass Video in San Francisco.  The place burned down when a fire  started 
on the wharf next to the building.  The 600 was a disc based system  that 
used black and white images to build a show and edit list.  Then it  was taken 
to an on line room.  The system was so expensive.  It was  out of reach for 
almost everyone.
 
The first CMX that I had experience with was a 340.  It also had the  DEC 
PDP as the CPU.  It also had core memory that allowed you not to have  to 
boot the system from paper tape every time.  In fact I still have a  paper tape 
in the basement.  The amazing thing was that they had to do  everything in 
64 K of memory.  The display was a terminal built by Ann  Arbor Terminals 
here in Michigan.  We had the high speed tape reader and  the LA-36 printer on 
each system.  The system was OK but there were always  bugs in it.  Many we 
did not see in every day use but they would drive us  crazy at times.  
 
Some of the design considerations for video and audio were not that  great. 
 The 2 x 1 preview switcher did not have any headroom and sounded  
terrible.  it was designed with the audio levels of off line machines in  mind.  The 
interfaces were not always for the correct model.  The  AVR-2 interface was 
based upon an early machine.  Thus modifications and  updates were not 
taken into account.  
 
Stupid operational things.  Like if the machine was playing and you  threw 
the switch on the I squared, it would stop the machine.  Hit the  wrong I 
squared and oops tape on air stops.
 
Chris Hill
WA8IGN
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