5 Apr
2010
5 Apr
'10
1:21 p.m.
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 15:34:22 -0400
From: ajp166 at verizon.net
To:
Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon boot disks
Dave Dunfield wrote:
Dave,
Without a bootable disk he can't do anything! The only resident rom is
the disk booter all 256 or 512 bytes depending if its SD or DD.
Minimally a monitor on a rom card (or cpu) with a minimal monitor is
needed.
This has been the challenge for all new people aquiring NS* systems
without media.
The other problem is without a CW card one cannot make a bootable
disk using a generic PC as it's hard sectored.
My solution is a CPU (compupro Z80, of SBC880) with Eprom monitor
or using a card like Compupro System Support 1 that can carry rom
and provide a system monitor/debugger. Of course any rom card
can carry the needed code.
One would also do well to read the available and very complete NS*
Horizon docs on line. It explains the system very well and also
provides the needed schematics, layouts and minute detail that
are required.
Allison
Hi Allison
What Dave is talking about is a bootstrapping ROM monitor that can be
used to create a boot disk. That is exactly what he is providing.
He is quite aware of the problem of the chicken and egg.
Dwight
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Where can
I get ahold of the image for that ROM monitor? I have a Horizon
here that came with 9 boxes of hard-sectored diskettes. Unfortunately all
of them are blank :-). Any tips on bootstrapping my way into a functional
system would be greatly appreciated.
I've been handing it out on a request basis, however I've just updated the
Horizon tools on my web site to include the monitor (source and tools to
build it) as well as updated the documentation with some hints on how to
go about making it work.
Go to "Download simulators and emulators" near the end of the main page,
and get the Horizon simulator - the simulator also includes all the tools
to bootstrap and transfer disk images to real NorthStar based systems. The
package includes bootable Double and Single density NorthStar DOS disk
images which you can customize (using the simulator) if needed. Once you
get the system up and running, check my site for other NorthStar images
which may be useful to you.
Regards,
Dave
--
dave09 (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Classic Computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/