Hardware
Sketchpad ran on the Lincoln TX-2 (1958) computer at MIT, which had 64k of 36-bit words. Of the 36 bits available to store each display spot in the display file, 20 gave the coordinates of that spot for the display system and the remaining 16 gave the address of the n-component element responsible for adding that spot to display. In 1963 most computers ran jobs in batch job mode only, using punched cards or magnetic tape reels submitted by professional programmers or engineering students. A considerable amount of work was required to make the TX-2 operate in interactive mode with a large CRT screen. When Sutherland had finished with it, it had to be reconverted to run in batch mode again.
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