Hi Don,
No, I don't think we ever really went into this stuff before and I am sure you
have the attention of a few hundred very interested guys . . . More below . . .
donlcramer@... wrote:
Speaking of prototypes, I am fascinated by them, whether Tek or someone
elses'. They represent someone's vision and generally also a lot of effort,
so it would be nice if something of it could be saved for history. Homage to
those that tried but failed I guess.
Unfortunately, I have a rather small house to be collecting this kind of
stuff. Hopefully at least the literature will end up with Stan for the
future Tek museum.
The main reason I don't (can't) collect many prototypes is that there are
probably about 10 prototypes for every one that actually became a catalog
product. I would need ten times the space to store them. Another reason is that
they are very poorly documented and usually have some serious flaw tht was worked
out later when it advanced to become a real instrument or it was abandoned,
complete with flaw. What I am looking for right now is someone to step forward
and tell me they want to preserve the 4000 Series technology. I have about 20
instruments I would love to give to that person right now to get them started. I
have passed up free gifts of many more 4000 Series because I don't have room to
store them. Step right up . . . please . . .
I vaguely remember seeing a few prototype products from my days at Tek (late
70's). One was the "nanoscope", which was shown at a yearly Tek Labs show
(where the corporate guys got to see what the lab coats were up to). It was
about a third the size of a 200 series handheld (the nanoscope that is, not
the show--the show took up the entire Bldg 50 auditorium). It didn't get
much further than a rough prototype I believe. And the CRT looked nice.
Boy, I don't remember that one.
Another was some pretty densely packed rackwidth size instruments which I was
told were network analyzers. That was back when I thought a network was
something that broadcast TV shows. I would love to hear the story of that
effort (it was adjacent the Spectrum Analyzer group, part of Communications
Division).
I was never privvy to that effort either . . .
Yet another was the 4054, which was a bit slice version of the 4051/4052
family desktop computers. Included a racy fast custom graphics processor,
also bit slice based. I understood it had super, super fast hardware with
real, real slow software. I was told the dozen prototypes were ultimately
bandsawed in the Model Shop. :<
Well, the 4054 actually became an official product. It's in the 1982 Tek Catalog
and perhaps others.
Also something out of the young Digital Service Instruments (DSI) offshoot of
Portables called the PET, which I think stood for Programmable Electronic
Tester. A largish portable scope size enclosure with, I recollect, an 8085
based micro and a bunch of interface cards. As the name implies, you plug
this box into your big system of some sort and it exercises it for you and
tells you what's wrong. I think the problem was defining what it was going
to plug into, and how was the specialized test software to be written? When
the group moved, they left behind a bunch of neat prototype mechanical
enclosure bits which I used to make G jobs out of.
I may have heard of this one . . .
And there was an internal tool called the board bucket, a card cage
microprocessor based computer system. I think it started as an engineering
tool when the 6800 based 4051 was developed, but became an internal entity
all it's own with cards, power supply, firmware, and engineering support.
I have seen these. I think they were mostly for the engineers to play with and
help them develop new products.
Another thing I came across in Tek Labs were 7K scope racks in the style of
TM500. That is, they were nicely built cages with power supplies which took
(6?) 7K type plug-ins. They had no CRT related hardware in them. Perhaps
these were only made for internal use, and perhaps before the real TM500
series came out. I never saw them with real 7K plugins installed. Only 7K
plugin mechanicals with custom hardware (like CRT test electronics)
installed. They were real nicely made, heavy and robust mainframes compared
to the TM500 equivalents, with regulated supplies in them like 7K scopes. I
recollect the plug-in mechanical bits and the blank PCB were available in
engineering stock for those which wanted to build something into them.
I have one of those 7K frames. I think the one I have was used as a "cycle box"
to age new plugins prior to calibrating them. I think they used the same basic
hardware for lots of in-house jobs.
I heard about, but never saw, some higher speed 200 series handhelds. I
believe they attained 35MHz but had dismal battery life. The engineer who
told me about this (I think he worked on it as a matter of fact) said there
was concern in management that that kind of performance would just
cannibalize the sales of the 400 series so the program was never pursued
seriously. Throughout my time at Tek I would hear variations of this kind of
story as a reason promising ideas were stopped. That is, some new idea would
hurt sales of existing products, so was stopped.
That probably happened, but if it did, it was a risky attitude to have. Better
Tek should hurt their own sales than have the competitors do it. If this stuff
could be built by Tek, they HP could probably do it . . .
Of course, now that I'm middle aged, I wish I would have paid better
attention to all this in the first place. Fortunately, there is this news
group now!
Ignore me if this was discussed previous to my joining. Hope I'm not being a
bore here...
Don
One of the prototypes that I have kept is the Tek 537 Storage Scope. It is
really a 531A with a special front panel and retrofitted with a Hughes Memoscope
CRT. I have heard two 537's were built and I have no idea what happened to the
other one.
I have a few other prototypes around but mostly I cannabalize them for parts. If
you are fond of prototypes, I would consider selling some to you . . . Right
now, I have a B Phase 547 that belongs to another guy, who wants to sell it.
$100 with a plugin (can't remember which model . . .).
Any takers? I can give a better description of the 547, scan a picture, and find
out about the plugin, if anyone is interested.
Stan
w7ni@...
