Introduction to the 7000-Series Oscilloscopes

In August of 1969 Tektronix issued a supplement catalog featuring a new series of instruments: The 7000-Series. Howard Vollum himself wrote the introduction message on page 1 of this supplement, where he presented the 7000 series as a replacement to the 500 scope series , emphasizing the necessity to switch to a new platform for modular high-end scopes due to the limitations of the original 500 series platform designed in 1953. According to Vollum $28 million were spent in two years to develop the initial components and products of the 7000 series. While the original mainframes 7504 and 7704 introduced in 1969 were short-lived, some of the original 13 plug-ins as the 7A22 or the 7S11 were produced until the early 1990s.

Common features of 7000-series scopes

• 2 vertical plug-in bays
• 1 (7XX3) or 2 (7XX4) horizontal plug-in bays (except digitizers)
• Horizontal and vertical plug-ins can be used in non-native slots
• On screen readout controlled from plug-ins including probe scaling
• Differential, calibrated 50 Ohm signal and trigger connections from plug-in to backplane

7000 series functional color code

Mode Selection

Trigger Source or Control

Uncalibrated Variable

Denotes functional relation

Links

• Scopes
• Plug-ins
• Readout system
• Backplane Interface
• List of 7000 series equipment
• Plug-in packaging
• Soviet Clones