VT520

The VT520 is an ANSI standard computer terminal introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1993 and 1994. The VT520 also supports monochrome graphics using the ReGIS vector or Sixel bitmap systems. The VT525 added color support, while the VT510 was a single-session, text-only version with a built-in monitor. The VT525 appears to be the most popular model in the series.

The VT500s replaced all previous models of DEC's VT line, at that time consisting of the VT420 text and VT340 graphics terminals. It was introduced in an era when the market was being flooded by low-cost IBM PC clones which could perform the same functions using a terminal emulator while also running other software. DEC introduced the VT500s only a short time before selling off their entire terminal division in August 1995. This brought the VT series to a close, after a total of about six million terminals had been sold.

The VT520 is still available from Boundless Technologies.

Description

In terms of major features, DEC's terminal line reached its peak with the VT300 series of 1988. The high-end models, the VT330 and VT340, included the abilities to display bitmap graphics using the sixel format, vector graphics using ReGIS or Tektronix 4010 emulation, terminal-side buffering and editing, and added the new ability to support two separate terminal sessions using a system known as TD/SMP. The base-model VT320 was a simple text-only version that lacked TD/SMP support, and this was replaced by the VT420 in 1990, adding this feature.