647A: Difference between revisions

Tek also introduced three new plug-ins with the 647A.  The [[10A2A]] is an improved version of the dual channel [[10A2]] vertical plug-in, with bandwidth extended to 100 MHz.  The [[11B2A]] is similar to the [[11B2]] dual time base, but triggers up to 100 MHz.  In addition, Tek introduced the [[10A1]] differential amplifier.  It operates down to 1 mV/div sensitivity, and includes a comparison voltage mode with a calibrated DC offset similar to that first offered in the [[W|type W]] plug-in.  The maximum bandwidth of the 10A1 is 55 MHz for sensitivities of 5 mV/div and higher.

In total, only 4 plug-ins were developed for the 647 series – the generic dual trace vertical, a differential vertical, and a single and a dual time base.  Although it combined high performance with rugged reliability and compactness, the 647 series was one of Tek’s “orphan” scope series, a result of when it was introduced.  By the time the 100 MHz 647A was announced, the majority of the R&D effort at Tek was devoted to the [[7000-series scopes|7000 series]], which introduced just two years later, in 1969.  The entry level 7000 series mainframe started with performance nearly the same as the top of the line 647A.  With on-screen scale factor read-out, and even more compact form factor, 7000 would offer many advantages over any of Tek’s existing lines of scopes.  When the work on developing plug-ins for 7000 series was ramping up, no additional plug-ins for any of the “legacy” plug-in scopes would be developed.  For the 530/540/550 series which started over 20 years earlier, a large family of plug-ins were available.  But for the orphan scopes which were introduced in the mid 1960s, the variety of plug-ins was very limited.