Tektronix 6132 workstations

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Wed Jan 7 10:59:30 1998

>><I've got a line on a Tektronix 6132 workstations, and I'm wondering what
>><exactly it is. According to the current owner it runs Berkeley UNIX ver
>><4.2 with some 4.3 extensions. Apparently it's been sitting in a closet
>><unused for the last 8 years, so who knows if it's working. He also
>><referred to it as a UTek workstation.
>><
>><I didn't even know Tek made any computers, and web searches bring up zilc
>>
>>Look inside it may be a DEC PDP-11 series machine in differnt garb.
>>
>>Allison
>
>Ack, don't get my hopes up! Sounds like I'll have to arrange to pick this
>beast up sooner than expected :^)

Um. I'm not familiar with the Tek 6000 series at all, although the
description "Workstation" makes me suspect that it's not a PDP. (That
is purely a guess - I shall be happy to be proven wrong)

In the late 1970s and early '80s Tek made the 4050 series. These were
almost workstations - personal machines built around a vector storage
CRT.

The 4051 (earliest) seems to have used a 6800 micro as its CPU. This
was replaced in the 4052 and 4054 by a bitslice machine which appeared
to be a 25 MHz 6800-alike with some extra instructions. Fun machines.

I have a 4052, BTW. Recent web searches, researching a talk I was
giving on these machines, did indeed bring up practically nothing - all
I discovered was that the Dutch computer museum also has a 4052, Hans
Pufal's list mentions them, and that a company I had once met in a quite
different context started life making software for these machines.
Otherwise, no results from any search engine I tried. (The Tektronix
site has narry a mention)

So, when you do get hold of this, please tell us all about it.

Philip.
Received on Wed Jan 07 1998 - 10:59:30 GMT