3 Oct
2008
3 Oct
'08
1:31 a.m.
In article <ded268c40810030102l5b47d119v70e948367ac60c3 at mail.gmail.com>,
"Paxton Hoag" <innfoclassics at gmail.com> writes:
Well, all the Tektronix terminals have microcomputers inside them
handling the terminal processing. I was musing as to whether or not
the 4108 used its own internal bus to do its terminal processing as
well as supply an extension point.
Actually my 1984 catalog lists the 4170 Processor.
Ah, thanks for the correction. I've updated my blog post.
I think I still have some 4170 processor boards in my
container.
If you want to unload those, let me know. Its nice to have spares.
Are you sure of the number of the terminal. The first
series of
compatable terminals were the 4105, 4107, 4107(all 13") and the 4109
(19"). This is from the 1984 & 1985 catalogs. I don't seem to have a
1986.
Yes, its labelled in the Tektronix style quite clearly, as you can see
in the photos linked from my blogpost. I have 4105s and 4205s.
You can add extra ram and change the eproms for
upgrade. I have
manuals somewhere in the container.
I have a 4170 User's Guide (which contains service information in the
back along with a big theory of operation section; I will scan for
bitsavers). The 4170 itself has two memory boards installed and a
hard drive installed internal to the enclosure, so I don't think its
the bargain basement model.
Memory is one of the slots, you can puit mopre than
one in. Also there
was a CX card, which was an IBM COAX interface card.
Are you talking about the slots on the 4170 or the 4108? I was
referring to the slots on the 4108 in that post.
My 4105 just has a cover to a place where you can add ROMs, but now
that I look at the 4205s, they have two connectors similar (most
likely identical) to the connectors in the 4108. However, the 4205
has two slots that are empty and the 4108 has four slots with two
populated and two empty.
Had the
tektronix terminal "mainframe" evolved by this time to be a
substrate into which processing and memory cards were inserted to
round out the system? I haven't opened the monitor case to look at it
in detail.
Not really, all of these terminals used an external processing unit. The 41XX graphics terminals were full fledged graphics
workstations of
the time, with up to 8 plane graphics running on a 16 slot ? Multibus
1 bus. The last one I saw was upgraded to a 386 / 387.
I have a 4114 that needs some work in restoring and a 4113 on its way
that looks pretty tricked out and is appears to be in excellent
cosmetic condition.
I like the 4170 because it makes a nice 8086 CPM-86
workstation.
I'll have to inventory the diskettes and hard drive to make sure
everything is backed up before playing.
Did you get one with the 8 Meg hard drive option? Or
just the Dual Floppy?
Ah, so its an 8 MB. I opened the case (haven't powered on yet) and
inspected the inside and I could make out a 5.25" hard drive.
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