VT220

DEC VT220 terminal with LK201 keyboard.

The VT220 was a terminal produced by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1983 to 1987.

Hardware

The VT220 improved on the earlier VT100 series of terminals with a redesigned keyboard, much smaller physical packaging, and a much faster microprocessor. To meet the needs of various national regulatory agencies, the VT220 was available with CRTs that used white, green, or amber phosphors.

Several of the VT2xx models were pyramidal shaped, allowing them to sit on a table top, leaving the surface of the display at an angle to the user; this angle could be adjusted. And because it was lower than head height, the result was an especially ergonomic terminal. The LK201 keyboard supplied with the VT220 was one of the first full length low profile keyboards available; it was developed at DEC's Roxbury, Massachusetts facility.

The VT240 and VT241 were variants of the VT220, both capable of displaying vector graphics. The VT241 was equipped with a color screen. The successor of the VT220 was the VT320, itself followed by the VT420.

Software

The VT220 was designed to be compatible with the VT100, but added features to make it more suitable for an international market. This was accomplished by the National Replacement Character Set feature, e.g., Multinational Character Set and support for 8-bit downloadable character sets.

See also

• Vttest VT100/VT220/XTerm Test Utility

External links

• Kermit 95 VT220 / VT320 Function Key Mapping
• VT220 workstation operating modes

Known VT220 clients

• WireLess TelNet (SofToGo)