Tektronix 4010

The Tektronix 4010 series was a family of text and graphics computer terminals based on the company's storage tube technology. There were several members of the family introduced through the 1970s, the best known being the 11-inch 4010 and 19-inch 4014. They were widely used in the CAD market in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The 4000 series were much less expensive than earlier graphics terminals, such as the IBM 2250, because no additional electronics were needed to maintain the display on the screen. They remained popular until the introduction of inexpensive graphics workstations in the 1980s. The new graphics workstations used raster displays and dedicated screen buffers that became more affordable as solid state memory chips became cheaper.

History

The Tektronix direct-view storage tube was first used in the Tektronix 564 oscilloscope in 1963, and was first used for non-oscilloscope applications in the 601 monitor in 1968. A number of graphics terminals based on this tube and others from the 600-series were developed, including the Advanced Remote Display Station from MIT's Project MAC, and the KV8I (later, KV8E) from Digital Equipment Corporation using the later 11-inch diagonal 611. These consisted of just the tube and related basic electronics, it was up to software on the host computer to produce a display by driving the controls directly.