Wacom SD tablets

Overview

The story of drawing tablets as we know them today begins with the Wacom SD series. All modern Wacom drawing tablets descend from the Wacom SD series.

In many ways these tablets works exactly like you would expect a modern drawing tablet to work. However being released in 1987, you can definitely tell that it they are from a completely different era of technology.

Basics

Cordless

Wacom emphasizes in the product materials that this is a “cordless” tablet. "Cordless" does not mean there is no cord or cable connecting the tablet to the computer - because there's certainly is such a cord. ”Cordless” refers to the fact that the pen is not connected to the tablet with a cord. This was a real innovation in 1987. In this era, you would have expected the pen to communicate to the tablet and get power from the tablet via such a cord.

Naming

  • "SD" apparently stood for "Super Digitizer".

  • This series has no distinction between model number and model name. That means the name is the model number.

Connections and cabling

  • The USB standard did not exist in 1987. These tablets connected to your computer through a serial port. Also the unit is specific to the kind of computer you have. For a PC you buy one version and for a Mac, you buy a different version. More here: Connecting a drawing tablets with a serial cable

  • The SD-510C unlike some other SD models, does not directly connect to your computer. Instead the tablet connects to a separate “tablet processor" box - that's about the size of a very large modern power brick - and then in turn that processor connects to the computer. That box contains the "brains" of the tablet and lets the SD-510C be much thinner than other SD models.

  • Cables were permanently fixed to the tablet.

Setting up the tablets

  • Users were expected to have much more technical expertise. The user manual contains information you would see for devices today.

  • For example with the SD-501C, configuring the device may require the user to understand how to configure dip switches on the processor box.

Packaging

The packaging isn't very attractive by today's standards. It's very plain looking there's no pictures of the tablet anywhere. The box has more of an “office equipment” feel.

Build quality

  • The form factor of the tablet feels very similar to a modern tablet. It's relatively thin. Though it is a bit heavier and definitely more sturdy. I think if you handed this tablet to someone who had no prior knowledge of Wacom's older tablets, they would still think this look and felt very professional and modern.

Bezels

  • The wider bezels we see in many Wacom professional tablets for many decades are visible here.

Design

  • It's understandable how to open the device. On the bottom, screws are visible.

  • Like equipment of the era, it has a beige color.

Thickness

The thickness of the SD series varies considerably.

On the thin end of the spectrum, the SD-510C looks a LOT like a modern drawing tablet. For this model, the "brains" of the tablet are in that box, called the Tablet Processor. The reason for this is that it keeps the tablet itself very thin.

But other models in the SD series are not much much thicker and do not feature the tablet processor box.

Models

Model
Notes

SD-510C

notes on SD-510C

SD-420E

SD-421E

SD-422E

SD-320E

SD-321E

SD-322E

SD-310E

SD-311E

SD-312E

SD-210L

SD-013A

SD-013L

User manuals

Using Wacom SD tablets on modern computers

If you want to use an SD tablet with your modern computer, you can use KuuubeTD. This is special driver created by tablet expert Kuuube that allows communication with this old SD tablets that use the serial port. This is only recommended for people with deeper technical skills.

https://github.com/Kuuuube/KuuubeTD

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