Tektronix 4404
Edward Wang
It's pretty nifty, but I have some questions:
1. What's the story behind the operating system?
It looks like some sort of Unix clone.
2. The documentation mentions an application EPROM area, and there are
some sockets on the back, but how does one use them?
3. The disk is SCSI. Does anyone tried adding off-the-shelf disks to it?
(There doesn't seem to be a mkfs equivalent.)
4. In general, does anyone have documentation on the hardware?
Thanks.
Pete Lancashire
>I recently acquired a Tektronix 4404 (for free).
>It's pretty nifty, but I have some questions:
Yea, it's big brother the 4406 was real neat. Tek could now be a big
player in the workstation mkt... but that a diff story for us old
Tekies...
>1. What's the story behind the operating system?
> It looks like some sort of Unix clone.
The first OS was OS9, There was/is a port of a TEK flavor of BSD,
for the 4406 but I don't know about the 4404.
>3. The disk is SCSI. Does anyone tried adding off-the-shelf disks to it?
> (There doesn't seem to be a mkfs equivalent.)
Insiders could add different disks, oh and it is 'standard' unmodifed SCSI.
>4. In general, does anyone have documentation on the hardware?
If no one gets back to you email me and I'll see what I can get, I
usually don't read this group....
-pete
--------------------------------------------
----- Pete Lancashire pe...@sequent.com ----
-------- Kid in spirit. Big Brother --------
-- Adopt ? ME ? I'm single !, Am I going ---
------------- crazy ? HELP -:) -------------
--------------------------------------------
Jon Udell
>It's pretty nifty, but I have some questions:
Pete> Yea, it's big brother the 4406 was real neat. Tek could now be a big
Pete> player in the workstation mkt... but that a diff story for us old
Pete> Tekies...
The 4404 wasn't bad either, for its time. I used one for two summers
while working at Tek (Smalltalk, C), then did some C programming on
one at school until I finished my degree.
>1. What's the story behind the operating system?
> It looks like some sort of Unix clone.
Pete> The first OS was OS9, There was/is a port of a TEK flavor of BSD,
Pete> for the 4406 but I don't know about the 4404.
The 4404 definitely is Unix-like, but I wouldn't call it a clone. I
never had much chance to play with the 4406 the school eventually
received, but I know that its OS was a big change from the 4404.
Sorry I can't provide you with any documentation. Everything I had is
still at Stanford. All I have at this point are some man pages I
printed for Unix-type commands.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Udell Jon....@FtCollinsCO.NCR.com
NCR Microelectronic Products Division (303) 223-5100 x9768
3351 Eastbrook Drive (303) 225-4829 (fax)
Fort Collins, CO 80525
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Edward Wang
The machine started getting intermitten hard errors two days ago,
and now no longer boots. The immediate symptom is a missing /bin/shell
(which is what Tek has chosen to call the shell).
I don't have a bootable floppy, so the situation doesn't look good.
So. Anybody has a suggestion? (The only one I can think of is
to put the drive on a machine with a SCSI interface, figure out
the filesystem format (close but not identical to the V7 fs), and
repair it.) Anybody want an almost-but-not-quite-working Tektronix 4404?
Adam Billyard
I have a working Tek4404 that I have restored and am writing new software for it.
Ping me if you have questions.
Adam
Dave McGuire
> On Wednesday, 13 October 1993 at 04:21:44 UTC+1, Edward Wang wrote:
>> Thanks for the replies. My request has now changed somewhat.
>> The machine started getting intermitten hard errors two days ago,
>> and now no longer boots. The immediate symptom is a missing /bin/shell
>> (which is what Tek has chosen to call the shell).
>> I don't have a bootable floppy, so the situation doesn't look good.
>> So. Anybody has a suggestion? (The only one I can think of is
>> to put the drive on a machine with a SCSI interface, figure out
>> the filesystem format (close but not identical to the V7 fs), and
>> repair it.) Anybody want an almost-but-not-quite-working Tektronix 4404?
>
> 30 years later for a reply is ok, right? :-)
> I have a working Tek4404 that I have restored and am writing new software for it.
> Ping me if you have questions.
to get it running at some point.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, President/Curator
Large Scale Systems Museum
New Kensington, PA