Tektronix products were used by many different companies in many different industries. We feature other company's videos which show Tektronix products on our Enabling Customer Success page.

This photo shows at least 12 Tektronix used on the manufacturing floor for the IBM 1401 computer. Most, but not all, of the oscilloscopes are Type 545A with a CA plug-in.

The IBM 1401 computer was introduced in 1959 and became the world’s most common/popular computer by the mid 1960s — half of all commercially delivered computers. It was used by businesses and institutions of all sizes, not just small businesses as larger firms often deployed many.

Technically, the 1401 was an I/O spooler. Cards would be read onto mag tapes, walked over to a 7000 mainframe and then the output would be written back to a 7000 tape, then walked back to the 1401/1403 printer.  It was quite an inefficient process and later superseded at some sites by dual-ported disk drives situated between the 1401 and the 7000. In terms of numbers, only a couple hundred 7000s were made, whereas the total number of 1400 family computers peaked at about 15,000.

Courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation
© (1960) International Business Machines Corporation