What is this old vfx tech called ?

Hi everyone,

Years ago I came across a video on YouTube (most likely) that was about old (70s/80s?) CGI technology.

IIRC it was basically a very fancy oscilloscope, took up a whole room and was used mainly to produce 3D titles.

I think it was operated using a bunch of knobs.

My apologies for the limited amount of details, like I said it's been years...

I hope you can help me scratch that itch, I've been trying to find it every now and then but no luck :(

Thanks for reading and for the potential help!

Edit: corrected 60s to 80s