Monochrome Display Adapter
E184284
Monochrome Display Adapter is an early IBM PC video display standard that supports only text output on a monochrome monitor, primarily used for business and word-processing applications.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Monochrome Display Adapter canonical | 3 |
| IBM Monochrome Display Adapter | 2 |
| IBM Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1635686 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Monochrome Display Adapter Context triple: [MDA, fullName, Monochrome Display Adapter]
-
A.
Commodore Amiga 500
The Commodore Amiga 500 is a late-1980s home computer known for its advanced graphics and sound capabilities, making it popular for gaming, multimedia, and creative applications.
-
B.
Monolithic Memories
Monolithic Memories was a semiconductor company known for developing programmable read-only memory (PROM) and logic devices after being spun off from Fairchild Semiconductor.
-
C.
DeLuxe Color
DeLuxe Color is a color motion picture film process and brand used by Deluxe Laboratories as an alternative to Eastmancolor for producing color prints for movies.
-
D.
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a 16/32-bit home computer line from the mid-1980s known for its advanced graphics and MIDI capabilities, popular in gaming, music production, and desktop publishing.
-
E.
Commodore Amiga 1000
The Commodore Amiga 1000 is the first model in Commodore's Amiga line of personal computers, notable for its advanced multimedia capabilities, multitasking operating system, and pioneering graphics and sound for a mid-1980s home computer.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Monochrome Display Adapter Target entity description: Monochrome Display Adapter is an early IBM PC video display standard that supports only text output on a monochrome monitor, primarily used for business and word-processing applications.
-
A.
Commodore Amiga 500
The Commodore Amiga 500 is a late-1980s home computer known for its advanced graphics and sound capabilities, making it popular for gaming, multimedia, and creative applications.
-
B.
Monolithic Memories
Monolithic Memories was a semiconductor company known for developing programmable read-only memory (PROM) and logic devices after being spun off from Fairchild Semiconductor.
-
C.
DeLuxe Color
DeLuxe Color is a color motion picture film process and brand used by Deluxe Laboratories as an alternative to Eastmancolor for producing color prints for movies.
-
D.
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a 16/32-bit home computer line from the mid-1980s known for its advanced graphics and MIDI capabilities, popular in gaming, music production, and desktop publishing.
-
E.
Commodore Amiga 1000
The Commodore Amiga 1000 is the first model in Commodore's Amiga line of personal computers, notable for its advanced multimedia capabilities, multitasking operating system, and pioneering graphics and sound for a mid-1980s home computer.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
IBM PC display adapter
ⓘ
computer display standard ⓘ video display adapter ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | MDA ⓘ |
| attributeSupport |
blink
ⓘ
high intensity ⓘ reverse video ⓘ underline ⓘ |
| busInterface | 8-bit ISA ⓘ |
| characterCellResolution | 9×14 pixels per character cell ⓘ |
| characterMatrix | 8×14 dot matrix characters ⓘ |
| characterSetSize | 256 characters ⓘ |
| codePage | IBM code page 437 ⓘ |
| colorSupport | monochrome only ⓘ |
| compatibility | IBM BIOS text modes ⓘ |
| concurrentUse | could be used alongside Color Graphics Adapter ⓘ |
| connectorType | DE-9 video connector ⓘ |
| developer | IBM ⓘ |
| displayColor |
amber phosphor
ⓘ
green phosphor ⓘ |
| feature |
no support for color attributes
ⓘ
very sharp text rendering ⓘ |
| graphicsSupport | no bitmapped graphics support ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | first official IBM PC display adapter ⓘ |
| introductionYear | 1981 ⓘ |
| marketPosition | business-oriented display adapter ⓘ |
| outputType | text mode only ⓘ |
| platform |
IBM PC
ⓘ
IBM PC XT ⓘ IBM PC compatible ⓘ |
| primaryUse |
business applications
ⓘ
text-based applications ⓘ word processing ⓘ |
| refreshRate | 50 Hz ⓘ |
| signalType | TTL digital video ⓘ |
| status | obsolete ⓘ |
| successor |
Color Graphics Adapter
ⓘ
linked to:
CGA
Enhanced Graphics Adapter ⓘ
linked to:
IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter
|
| textModeColumns | 80 ⓘ |
| textModeRows | 25 ⓘ |
| textResolution | 720×350 effective text resolution ⓘ |
| typicalMonitor |
IBM 5151 Monochrome Display
ⓘ
linked to:
IBM 5151
|
| usedWith |
DOS text-mode software
ⓘ
early PC word processors ⓘ terminal emulation software ⓘ |
| videoMemoryAddress | B0000h ⓘ |
| videoMemorySize | 4 KB ⓘ |
| videoMemoryType | dedicated text buffer ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Monochrome Display Adapter Description of subject: Monochrome Display Adapter is an early IBM PC video display standard that supports only text output on a monochrome monitor, primarily used for business and word-processing applications.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Monochrome Display Adapter
subject linked to:
EGA
linked to: Monochrome Display Adapter
subject linked to:
Hercules Graphics Card (third-party)
linked to: Monochrome Display Adapter