Something I never knew about Tektronix - calculators and disk drives! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Jwalling
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 25, 2016, 07:17:28 pm
content: Not even sure if this is in the right group, but there are references to this interfacing with test equipment, so... Wondering if these use 8" floppy disks, anyone know? I remember repairing 8" floppy drives from Shugart and Qume in mid 1980s. So long ago that I couldn't remember how to spell Qume and had to look it up!Came across this on Ebay:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-4922-Flexible-Disc-Memory-/331891140676?hash=item4d4640e844:g:bqYAAOSwepJXaY5vAnd references to it and/or what what it would work with:http://www.calcuseum.com/ED/desk_08404.htmlhttp://www.diyaudio.com/forums/lounge/270227-tektronix-model-31-scientific-calculator.htmlhttps://oldcalculators.wordpress.com/2010/05/[url=https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_tektronixclog1975_318524284/Tektronix_Catalog_1975_djvu.txt]https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_tektronixclog1975_318524284/Tektronix_Catalog_1975_djvu.txtOriginal list price: 4922 Flexible Disc Memory $5750. More than two Volkswagen beetles for 512KB of storage!EDIT: cleaned up links.Jay

author: Wuerstchenhund
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2016, 07:37:27 pm
content: Tektronix made lots of computer products, especially lots of terminals. Back in the 80's I worked on Tek 4125 graphics workstation which pretty much was a large deskside case full of 3D graphics hardware, which was connected to a central host (VAX).They also made computers, like the Tek 4050 which used an analog scope like storage tube as frambuffer, as well as printers (i.e. Tektronix Phaser solid ink printers). The printer part was later bought by Xerox.

author: Jwalling
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 25, 2016, 07:58:35 pm
content: Quote from: Wuerstchenhund on June 25, 2016, 07:37:27 pmI do remember the Phaser printers in name only, but that's about it WRT to computer related stuff from them. In the 80s I was a debug/repair tech on Intel Multibus I computers (8080, 8085 and 8086) and peripherals (paper tape readers, 9 track tape drives, 8" floppy drives, and big chain driven line printers). I miss those days...Jay

author: PaulAm
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2016, 08:57:33 pm
content: Hard to believe it now when your average run of the mill display has a multi megapixel screen, but those vector storage displays were state of the art graphics displays at the time. That was shortly after the time when getting characters to display on a CRT screen was becoming common.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2016, 01:37:26 am
content: Quote from: PaulAm on June 26, 2016, 08:57:33 pmThe early Tektronix DSOs which used vector CRTs were pushing 10 bit horizontal and vertical resolution so they had about half the DPI of a modern "retina" display which is still higher than any modern DSO with an LCD that I am aware of. They did not have any ability for index grading though.The only reason they could get away with this is that high post deflection acceleration voltages allowed for a small spot size and the only reason they had that was that they were reusing CRTs intended for 100+ MHz analog oscilloscopes.HP did something similar with some of their early DSOs which used raster displays; they had double the normal horizontal resolution.