The Tektronix 7000 series is a wonderful addition to any test bench. They are solidly made and often have interesting circuitry. The wide range of plug-ins provide a study upgrade path. If there is one complaint, it is the use of Tek custom ICs. However, given the choice of some piece of unknown 'scope and a Tek 7000, isn't the choice perfectly clear? I'll never understand how someone can buy a random brand when they could have bought a used Tek. Tektronix also has a FAQ for their 7000 series. It tells you about the year of introduction of each mainframe and plugin and not much more.
I have some preliminary notes on interfacing to the 7000 series .
The creation of ebay's test equipment category has resulted in a lot of 7000 equipment on the market.
Here's my mapping from mainframe numbers to specification. A mainframe has 4 digits: 7BTS, where B is the bandwidth, T is the type and S is the number of slots.
| Digit | Bandwidth (MHz) | Type |
| 0 | Normal | |
| 1 | 1000 | Storage or digitizer |
| 2 | Storage | |
| 3 | 65 | Storage |
| 4 | 60 | Dual beam |
| 5 | 100 | Computerized |
| 6 | 100 | |
| 7 | 175/200 | |
| 8 | 400 | |
| 9 | 500 |
| Mainframe | BW(Mhz) | Comments |
| 7103/4 | 1000 | Highest speed mainframe (03 is rackmount) |
| 7313 | 65 | Seldom seen |
| 7403 | 60 | Slowest mainframe |
| 7503/4 | 100 | Sometimes seen |
| 7603 | 100 | Common mainframe; also USM-281 without readout |
| 7612D | 100 | Programmable digitizer |
| 7613 | 100 | Variable Persistence |
| 7623 | 100 | Multimode Storage |
| 7633 | 100 | Multimode Storage |
| 7704/A | 150/200 | A is 200. non A is 150 MHz |
| 7834 | 400 | Fast storage |
| 7844 | 400 | Dual beam; also in rack mount |
| 7854 | 400 | Digital storage, IEEE 488; needs calculator keyboard for full use |
| 7903/4 | 500 | A is improved; rack mount is 03 |
| 7912/AD/HD | 500 | Flying spot scanner; needs 7A16P/7B90P |
| 7934 | 500 | Fastest storage |
| Amplifier | BW(Mhz) | Zin | Sens. | Comments |
7A11  | 250 | 1M | 5mV-20V | Builtin active probe |
| 7A12 | 120 | 5mV-5V | Dual trace w/ push buttons | |
7A13   | 100 | 1M | 1mV-5V | Diff comparator 10K CMRR; comes in mechanical and LED readout |
| 7A14 | 120 | #160; | 1ma-1A | AC current probe amp (needs P6201) |
7A15/A/N  | 80 | 5mv-5V | ||
7A16/A/P  | 150/225 | 50/1M | 5mV-5V | A is 255 Mhz; P prog. |
| 7A17 | 150 | n.a. | n.a. | Customizable, rare |
7A18/N  | 75 | 1M | 5mV-5V | Dual trace; 06 option? |
7A19  | 600 | 50 | 10mV-1V | |
7A21N  | 1 Ghz | 50 | direct | High speed GR-874 inputs, goes directly to mainframe vertical amp; doesn't fit in 7854 |
7A22  | 1 | 10uV-10V | Diff amplifier 100K CMRR | |
7A24  | 400 | 50 | 5mV-1V | Dual trace |
7A26  | 200 | 50 | 5mV-5V | Dual trace |
| 7A29/P |  1000 | 50 | 10mV-1V | Single trace |
7A42  | 350 | 4 trace digital | ||
067-0587  | Special calibration fixture for mainframes, -00 is 200 MHz, -01 is 500 Mhz and -02 is 1 GHz (710x) |
| Time base | fastest t/div(ns) | Comments |
| 7B10 | 0.2 | for use with 710x |
| 7B15 | 0.2 | Delaying version of 7B10 |
7B50/A  | 5 | A is 150 Mhz |
| 7B51 | 5 | Delaying sweep |
| 7B52 | 5 | Dual channel |
7B53A/N  | 5 | Delaying version |
| 7B70 | 2 | |
| 7B71 | 2 | Delaying |
7B80 | 1 | |
7B85 | 2 | |
| 7B87 | 2 | For use with 7854, has pretrigger |
| 7B90P | 2 | For use with 7912AD, programmable |
7B92/A  | 0.5 | Dual time base |
| Misc | Notes |
| 7CT1N | Curve tracer |
7D01 | Logic analyzer; hard to find pods |
| 7D02 | Logic analyzer |
| DF01 | Display formatter |
| DF02 | Display formatter |
| 7D10 | Digital event delay (D11 is later version) |
| 7D11 | Digital event/time delay |
| 7D12 | A/D (needs modules M1, M2 or M3) |
| 7D13 | Multimeter |
| 7D14 | Digital Counter to 525 MHz |
| 7D15 | Universal Counter/timer to 225 MHz |
7D20 | Digital storage ; 488 |
| 7F10 | Optical/Electrical [v. rare] |
| 7K11 | CATV Preamp (for Spectrum Analyzers) |
| 7L5 | Spectrum Analyzer 20Hz-5Mhz |
| 7L12 | Spectrum Analyzer 100 kHz-1.8 Ghz |
| 7L13 | Spectrum Analyzer 1 kHz-1.8 Ghz |
| 7L14 | Spectrum Analyzer 10 kHz-1.8 Ghz (digital) |
| 7L18 | Spectrum Analyzer 1.5Ghz-18 Ghz |
| 7M13 | Display "keyboard" |
| M1 | DMM module |
| M2 | Sample/hold module |
| M3 | True RMS module |
| Sampling | Notes |
7S11 | Vertical amp for plugins |
7S12  | TDR/Sampler |
7S14  | No head sampler. 1GHz limit |
7T11  | Time base; also comes in A (bug fixes) |
| 7M11 | 75 ns delay unit (coaxial) |
| Unit | BW(Ghz) | Notes |
| S1 | 1 | 350 ps risetime |
S2  | 4.6 | 75 ps risetime |
| S3/A | 1 | Probe, 350 ps risetime |
S4  | 14 | 25 ps risetime, trigger pickoff |
| S5 | 0.350 | slowest head |
| S6 | 11.5 | 30 ps risetime; TDR feedthru |
| S42 | 6.5 GHz | Opto-Electrical converter [v. rare] |
| S50 | 25 ps | Pulser |
| S51 | 18 GHz | Trigger countdown |
| S52 | 25 ps | Pulser |
| S53 | 1 GHz | Trigger Recognizer for 7S12 |
| S54 | 1 ns | Slowest pulser |
Thanks to Richard Hager, David DiGiacomo, Alan Shoemake, John Westlake and John Colaw for assistance in compiling this table. And thanks to everyone who emailed saying thanks!