Northstar Horizon - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

2 Nov 1999

That's about the price range I remember too.  OTOH, I used to get the
Integrand box and, separately of course, the CCS CPU, CCS 64K DRAM board,
and CCS FDC for about $980.  Two of the Misubishi MB2894 (?) DSDD 8" drives
cost $780, though, and the system still needed a dumb terminal.  For that I
normally used a Televideo 920, or, later, 910.  Those also cost about $750
back then.  It wasn't cheap, no matter how you turned it.

With that combination, I was able to put out a computer system which had a
decent display, decent performance, and generally acceptable storage for
around $3k with a few bucks in my pocket if I shopped carefully.   It was
easier, of course, if the client already had some stuff, like a printer and
a terminal.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Stek &lt;bobstek(a)ix.netcom.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 7:19 PM
Subject: RE: Northstar Horizon

...
 Define late entry.  The N* Product Catalog I have in
front of me is dated
January, 1978 and it says:

"North Star Computers ... was incorporated in June, 1976.  ...North Star now
...
 offers a complete S-100 bus computer."

I'd have to dig out more definitive references, but it seems likely that the
...
 Horizon was first offered in 1977.  The price at the
time was $1599 (kit) or
...
 $1899 (assembled) for the Horizon 12-slot motherboard
with built in serial
port (additional serial or parallel port was $39), RTC, chassis and cover,
15A @ 8v, 6A @+/- 16v power supply, with 4 MHz Z-80, 16k RAM, disk
controller, and one Shugart minifloppy.  (A second Shugart was $400!)  The
CPU board listed for $199, and the 16K RAM for $399 - parity option was $39
(I remember reading warnings about using dynamic RAM w/o parity 'cause stray
...
 cosmic rays were likely to corrupt your memory at
admittedly infrequent
times!)

Bob Stek
bobstek(a)ix.netcom.com
Saver of Lost SOLs

-----Original Message-----
From: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu
[mailto:CLASSICCMP-owner@u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 1:29 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon

The N* Horizon was a late entry in the S-100 market, and, though it was
priced competitively with CROMEMCO and VECTOR GRAPHICS systems, it didn't
come in at a lower price than component systems using boards purchased
individually based on comparison-shopping for the best price/function
tradeoff.