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The IBM 3279 was IBM's first colour Terminal. It was introduced in 1979. The 3279 was widely used as an IBM mainframe terminal before PCs became commonly used for the purpose. It was part of the 3270 series, using the 3270 datastream. Terminals could be connected to a 3274 controller, either channel connected to an IBM mainframe or linked via an SDLC (Synchronous Data Link Control) link. In the Systems Network Architecture (SNA) protocol these terminals were logical unit type 2 (LU2). The basic model 2 used red, green for input fields, and blue and white for output fields. However, there were other models with seven colours and different screen sizes, and one kind had a loadable character set that could be used to show graphics.
It was designed at IBM's Hursley Development Laboratory, near Winchester, England.