Dual-beam scopes

Dual-beam scopes contain CRTs with two separate electron guns, producing separate electron beams that can be deflected independently for displaying different signals.

Depending on the tube, the beams may share horizontal deflection plates, or may have completely separate deflection.

Scopes that use electronic multiplexing to display more than one signal using just one electron beam are called multi-trace (dual-trace, quad-trace) scopes.

Some dual-beam scopes allow displaying multiple traces per beam by using dual- or quad-trace plugins.

Tektronix produced the following true dual-beam models:

• 502  − 1 MHz monolithic scope, common horizontal system, differential inputs (1958-1973)
• 551  − 27 MHz mainframe, two vertical plugins, common horizontal system (1958-?)
• 555  − 30 MHz mainframe, two vertical plugins, two independent timebase plugins (1959-1969)
• 556  − 50 MHz mainframe, two vertical plugins, two independent built-in timebases (1966-?)
• 565  − 10 MHz mainframe, two vertical plugins, two independent built-in timebases (1962-?)
• 5030 − monolithic scope, common timebase (1969-1972)
• 5031 − monolithic scope, common timebase (1969-1972)
• 5112 − 2 MHz mainframe from the 5000 series, two vertical plugins, common horizontal plugin (?-?)
• 5113 − 2 MHz mainframe from the 5000 series, two vertical plugins, common horizontal plugin, split-screen bi-stable storage tube (?-?)
• 5444 − 60 MHz mainframe from the 5000 series (1976-?)
• 7844 − 400 MHz mainframe from the 7000 series, two vertical plugins, two independent horizontal plugins (1975-1988)