• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Does anyone have a Tektronix 8002A emulator system?

Al Kossow

Al Kossow

Documentation Wizard
Joined
Sep 1, 2006
Messages
3,513
Location
Silicon Valley
Wow! I used a Tektronix 8002 Microprocessor Lab from 1977 to 1979 to develop 6800 assembly programs - with a Tektronix 4051 vector graphics computer as a terminal!

The 8002A user guide posted on bitsavers.org page 1-8 indicates the 8002 had 16KB of RAM and the 8002A had 32KB and could be expanded to 64KB of RAM - and the 8-inch floppy disks had a capacity of 315KB!

By comparison - Tektronix 4907 GPIB Floppy Disk System for the Tektronix 4050 computers was introduced in 1978 and used Shugart 8-inch drives with double-density single-sided hard-sectored disks with 630,528 byte capacity and 256 byte sectors.
 
I have a Signetics TWIN (Testware Instrument). It is almost identical to the Millennium Universal One development system, which is again very similar to the Tektronix 8002 Microprocessor Lab. I am not sure who the original designer was. I do know that Signetics contracted Millennium to develop a system for their 2650 microprocessor, but the base system may already have been available at that time. Did Tektronix license from Millennium, or the other way around?

The system I have uses the 2650 both on the master and on the slave processor (pardon my historical language). So far I am still working on restoring the power supplies. I have not yet plugged it into mains. See https://ztpe.nl/2650/hardware/signetics-twin/ . I do have two original disks, no idea yet what is on them. These are soft sectored.

The software for the Signetics TWIN (SDOS), the Millennium Universal One (UDOS) and the Tektronix 8002 (Tekdos) seem to be almost identical in use (based on the manuals). I believe the disk layout is also identical.
 
Porcupine said:
I have a Signetics TWIN (Testware Instrument). It is almost identical to the Millennium Universal One development system, which is again very similar to the Tektronix 8002 Microprocessor Lab. I am not sure who the original designer was. I do know that Signetics contracted Millennium to develop a system for their 2650 microprocessor, but the base system may already have been available at that time. Did Tektronix license from Millennium, or the other way around?

The system I have uses the 2650 both on the master and on the slave processor (pardon my historical language). So far I am still working on restoring the power supplies. I have not yet plugged it into mains. See https://ztpe.nl/2650/hardware/signetics-twin/ . I do have two original disks, no idea yet what is on them. These are soft sectored.

The software for the Signetics TWIN (SDOS), the Millennium Universal One (UDOS) and the Tektronix 8002 (Tekdos) seem to be almost identical in use (based on the manuals). I believe the disk layout is also identical.
Click to expand...
I only learned about the Tectronix 8002 today. Looking at the Millennium_internal_floppies you mentioned and extracting the files from those disk images I got the binary for TekDOS. Much to my surprise that code is for the 2650 microprocessor. Disassembly reveals several code-similarities with the SDOS that I am reverse-engineering. Therefore, the main processor for the 8002 must be a Signetics 2650. That also means that the link with Signetics is much stronger than I first thought.

I don't know the business relationships, but could it be that Signetics contracted Millennium Information Systems to create a development system based on their 2650 processor, and that Millennium later, or as part of the deal, had the right to license the system to other users? Such as Tektronix? I still have much to learn here.
 
Last edited:
I did find an 8-inch QUME floppy drive pulled from a Tektronix 8501 Data Management Unit (dual floppy for 8550):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/196149622788
s-l1600.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top