website/content/museum/vector-graphics-vector-4.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Vector Graphics Vector 4	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1983	Zilog Z80C	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos links related oc_id source Vector 4 /media/museum/photos/vector-graphics_vector4_1.jpg /companies/vector-graphics Vector Graphics label value NAME Vector 4 label value MANUFACTURER Vector Graphics label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1983 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard with function keys and separate numeric keypad label value CPU Zilog Z80C + Intel 8088 label value SPEED 6 MHz label value RAM 128 KB (up to 256 KB) label value ROM Unknown label value TEXT MODES 80 x 24 label value GRAPHIC MODES 640 x 312 (B/W) / 320 x 312 (four intensities) / 160 x 312 (16 intensities) label value COLORS Optional label value I/O PORTS Centronics, Parallel (for Nec Qume Printer), RS232 (two : printer and communication) label value BUILT IN MEDIA Two 5.25'' floppy disk drives label value OS CP/M and MS-DOS label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in PSU label value PRICE Unknown photos links 257 title subtitle text image SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER Notice the dual CPU on the left hand side and the three S-100 expansion slots. Thanks to **Dennis Wingo** /media/museum/photos/vector_vector4_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image DUAL CPU CLOSE-UP Thanks to **Dennis Wingo** /media/museum/photos/vector_vector4_dualcpu_s1.jpg title subtitle text image FD/HD CONTROLLER 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** /media/museum/photos/vector_vector4_fdhdcard_s1.jpg title url text Vector Graphics 1976 - 1984 http://www.vectorgraphics.org.uk Web site dedicated to Vector Graphics systems title url text VECTOR-GRAPHIC List http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VECTOR-GRAPHIC mailing list for Vector Graphic computers /museum/vector-graphics-mz /museum/vector-graphics-vector-1 /museum/vector-graphics-vector-3-vip 247 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230608151626/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=247 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.