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6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
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---
title: Vector Graphics Vector 4
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- Zilog Z80C
params:
name: Vector 4
company: /companies/vector-graphics
company_name: Vector Graphics
specs:
- label: NAME
value: Vector 4
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Vector Graphics
- label: TYPE
value: Professional Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: '1983'
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Full-stroke keyboard with function keys and separate numeric keypad
- label: CPU
value: Zilog Z80C + Intel 8088
- label: SPEED
value: 6 MHz
- label: RAM
value: 128 KB (up to 256 KB)
- label: ROM
value: Unknown
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 80 x 24
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: 640 x 312 (B/W) / 320 x 312 (four intensities) / 160 x 312 (16 intensities)
- label: COLORS
value: Optional
- label: I/O PORTS
value: 'Centronics, Parallel (for Nec Qume Printer), RS232 (two : printer and communication)'
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: Two 5.25'' floppy disk drives
- label: OS
value: CP/M and MS-DOS
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Built-in PSU
- label: PRICE
value: Unknown
tabs:
- photos
- links
photos:
- title: SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Notice the dual CPU on the left hand side and the three S-100 expansion slots.
Thanks to **Dennis Wingo**
image: null
- title: DUAL CPU CLOSE-UP
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to **Dennis Wingo**
image: null
- title: FD/HD CONTROLLER
subtitle: ''
text: |-
This Floppy Disk/Hard Disk controller originally came to market in April 1981 and was an option for the Vector III and Vector MZ computers (The VIP was a single or dual floppy system). This is, as far as any of us knew at the time, the world's first integrated FD/HD card in the S-100 form factor.
This card originally controlled the Vector 630k Hard Sectored floppy and a 5 megabyte ST-506 MFM hard drive. The same card was used until the demise of vector for higher and higher capacity drives up to about 20 megabytes by the time Vector went bankrupt. The version that is below in the picture here is a design variant that was used to interface to a Quantum 8" 40 megabyte hard drive!! You could order from Vector in 1981 (Almost always with an MZ) a computer with this controller and a 40 megabyte drive. No one even came close to what we were doing in that area. From what I remember, the controller would only handle the drive as 32 megabytes formatted but this was a truly a powerhouse computer with the big drive attached.\
Richard Deigas was the designer of this board and like almost all Vector engineers (excepting Dr. Bob of course), were non degreed but knew their work!
Thanks to **Dennis Wingo**
image: null
links:
- title: Vector Graphics 1976 - 1984
url: http://www.vectorgraphics.org.uk
text: Web site dedicated to Vector Graphics systems
- title: VECTOR-GRAPHIC List
url: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VECTOR-GRAPHIC
text: mailing list for Vector Graphic computers
comments:
- author: Dennis Wingo (Huntsville, Alabama)
date: Friday 28th December 2007
text: |-
Hey Jeff, this is Dennis Wingo, used to work in Engineering. If any of you guys want to get rid of your Vector 4 let me know.
Dennis
- author: Jeff Grossman (Los Angeles, CA)
date: Wednesday 9th November 2005
text: |-
I still have an new Vector 4 in storage. I should since I was one of the key Operation Systems developers at Vector Graphics.
Amazing that there are still a few of these in operation. All-in-all they were a great machine for a specific niche market (Word processing, spreadhseet, and simple accounting through Peachtree).
- author: Michael Swanson (Portland, OR, USA)
date: Tuesday 1st May 2012
text: I was given this computer as a second-hand gift when I was thirteen years old in 1985. I had no idea what to do with it or how to operate it, but one day I was messing around with it, thinking of the movie Wargames, and typed in "PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY SYSTEM" for no other reason than being thirteen. I was met with an "illegal operation" error message. I stared in horror at the screen, thinking$despite having no modem$that I had been caught by the Secret Service! I pulled the power plug out of the wall and spent the next few days waiting for a knock on the door. I refused to turn it back on for weeks after that!
- author: You De Mann (England)
date: Thursday 28th April 2022
text: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$zsjTpFR0oYQ please help we have zx spectrum 48k and one 128k program running at 6mhz using external ram and snapper discs from velesoft site
- author: Kurt Gross
date: Tuesday 11th August 2020
text: I have an old Vector 4 or 4S. Is it worth anything? If interested email me at wings@wctc.net
- author: Jody Tallal (United States)
date: Thursday 15th February 2018
text: |-
Back in the early 1980''s I hired a small programming company to create a complete personal financial planning software system to create financial plans instead of doing it manually. The only machine at the time that could handle what we needed to do was a Vector 4.
I still have that original machine but have lost the keyboard. It boots up fine except for the KB error.
I am trying to find a keyboard that will work and it appears to be impossible to find one made for this computer. Because it has a RJ11 interface I am wondering if other keyboards of that era that have RJ11 plugs will work. I have found a HP 2392 2394 Terminal Keyboard and a Vintage Wyse 901876-01 RJ-11 Terminal Keyboard (US/UK ASCII). Does anyone know if either of those two KBs would work with my Vector 4 box? If not, any suggestions of what else I might to to get a keyboard that can work with this machine?
Thanks
- author: tim hovey
date: Thursday 13rd October 2016
text: E-mail if interested in buying is thovey@proactinc.org
- author: TIm Hovey (Minnesota/ US)
date: Thursday 13rd October 2016
text: Dennis Wingo or anyone else I have a I have a Vector 4 I am looking to sell. We are an R2 recycler and would be selling this as an untested collectable
- author: Paul Nourse (Milwaukee, Wi)
date: Friday 24th January 2014
text: |-
Hi guys, worked at Vector Graphics Ventu Park in the mid 80''s. Nice group of people. It was so sad watching assets being sold off. :-(\
I still have one of the Tektronix oscilloscopes they were selling off near the end. Sad end to a great company.
- author: quisizyx (Oklahoma,USA)
date: Wednesday 10th July 2013
text: |-
Greets- I''m amazed that there are still Vectors out there running. I had a Vector 4S as my very first personal computer. I discovered the trace on the MB that you could cut or bridge to get either the Z80 or the 8088. I put in a micro switch on the side so I could easily boot either OS. The 16 hard sector floppies were a pain tho.\
I started on a TRS-80 Level 1 16K for our family business. We later got 8088 clone. The Vector was my very first all my own. I have kept most of the boxes that I used thru the yrs. This 1 I didn''t. If any1 has 1 4 sale...
- author: Kim Barry (USA)
date: Saturday 27th April 2013
text: I have two Vector Graphic 4 systems and am interested in selling them. Both are fully operable and have software (MEMORITE +). Is there a market for these?
- author: mj pierce (Dallas, TX, USA)
date: Sunday 6th January 2013
text: I purchased a Vector Graphics in 1982 because you could run multiple workstations at the same time. I had four machines hooked together and ran accounting, word processing and spreadsheet applications at the same time.. only problem was, each others data got in each others data! VG engineers came to sort it out. For awhile, software vendors pointed at hardware, hardware pointed at software. In the end... they believed it was "dirty power" - voltage spikes! I often wondered if some internal computing processing had problems with slicing how it shared memory or something. No matter, at the time it was cheaper than the $12K per machine I had paid in 1980 for Wang word processors. And with the VG I could have multiple people working on the one machine at the same time. Just had to be careful to make sure each person saved their data at separate times. Overall it was a great machine.
- author: Greg quinn (Kansas City, MO, USA)
date: Friday 25th May 2012
text: 'In the mid-80''''s, the firm i worked for as the controller bought a Vector Graphic 4 switching our accounting system over from pen ''''n ink (or even a Pegboard system). It had a 5 Mb hard drive and 1 floppy drive used for backups. We bought and installed CYMA as our accounting software$ we utilized only G/L, A/P and A/R and this fulfilled our accounting to a "tee." We loved the keyboard (over the IBM-PC''''s) and the processing speed was certainly fast enough for us. We had only one user, my accounting assistant, enter data, but I did the financials, etc. Bottomline: Loved it.'
- author: Bill Hicks (New York)
date: Friday 4th May 2012
text: I had one of these in 1991 that I brought for $100. I was heavy into CP/M and felt this would be a good start switching to the MS DOS world as it did both.The first day I had it I was exploring the C drive, seeing what was on there and decided to get rid of some junk on the hard drive. So at the C:$ prompt I typed del \*.\* to clean out the directory. I didnt realize I was in the root directory, CP/M didn''t have that it had user areas, and thought I was in the directory that had the files I wanted to $ so now I had a nice CP/M machine and a PC compatible system with no operating system. And since it used hard sector disks I wasnt able to find any boot disks to restore it. Other than that I loved the system.
- author: Randy Kiehl (Kerrville TX)
date: Thursday 20th October 2011
text: Hello, if you remember I ran Maintenance after John Murray. John passed away last year. And Bill Lawson is at Polymetrics in Arlington TX.
- author: Sandra (Patterson, CA)
date: Tuesday 18th January 2011
text: My husband started his computer business on the old Vectors. We still have 3 complete units that still run. Are they worth anything?
- author: Bryan Costin (Westminster, Maryland)
date: Monday 25th December 2006
text: I have a Vector 4 in storage. I picked it up for free at a Hamfest years ago. I knew nothing about the machine but the sleek design of the machine was really intriguing. It looks like it belongs on the set of Space:1999.
- author: Micheal (Ga. USA)
date: Thursday 22nd May 2003
text: I also have 3 Vector 4s and still run them to this day all with 10mb hdds soon to be 20mb as i just got a few old 20mb MFM-RLL drives.
- author: Derek Archer (Richland, WA)
date: Tuesday 17th December 2002
text: I have a WORKING Vector 4 computer! I use it for experimenting with programming and stuff. I actually wrote a chess game for it!
related:
- /museum/vector-graphics-mz
- /museum/vector-graphics-vector-1
- /museum/vector-graphics-vector-3-vip
oc_id: 247
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608151626/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=247
date: '2023-06-08'
---
Thanks to **Dennis Wingo**, Vector former employee from engineering, for this information:
Historically, the Vector 4 can be seen as a transitional system, especially for Vector in the quandary in 1982 concerning whether or not to compete directly with the IBM PC.\
The system shown below had a 6 Mhz Z-80 CPU and an 8088 "I think" also running at 6 Mhz so it would have been faster in processing than a standard 4.77 MHz IBM PC.
The I/O for the system was the S-100 bus but with a reduced functionality so that it was only used for the FD/HD card and other I/O mapped boards. The original memory was 128 kilobytes with the ability to add a daughter card that would extend this to 256 kilobytes.\
The Vector 4 had a much better graphics capability than the Vector III although I can't recall the resolution. The Vector 4 originally booted CP/M and also had the LinkNet 750 kilobit/sec token passing network card as an option.
Interestingly enough by the time of Comdex in November of 1982 we had the LinkNet integrated to the extent that we could have 32 computers all linked together AND you could map ALL of the disk drives from the entire network onto whichever system you were working on.\
In March of 1983 I did an install at Digital Research (inventors of CP/M) of a networked system and between Vector and DRI we implemented CP/M 86 that used the much faster 8088 CPU and had all of the same networking features that we had in CP/M-80 as it became to be called. If it had not been for some collusion between IBM and other parties, we would have had commonplace networking a decade before this actually happened....but that is another story!
**Anthony Lefco** reports:\
This computer had a hard sectored floppy. Later a soft sectored model became available so that it was more compatible with prevailing standards. It also had an option to convert to an 8086 chip through an installation by TRW. It came with a full suite of proprietary applications.
This was my first computer. I remember it well. It was murder to figure out how to get the data out when it was time to convert to a new computer as the company quickly went bankrupt, but it did force me to learn about computers in more detail.