14 Jan
2006
14 Jan
'06
1:03 p.m.
Thought I'd throw out to the list what was in my northstar haul, in case
there's something someone is desperate for a copy of..
Unopened box of DC300XL cartridges (5) (these must have gone with some other
system)
Opened box of DC300XL cartridges, 3 in original wrap (these must have gone
with some other system)
Box of 14 (blank?) floppy disks, 10 sector (hard) (hopefully not really
blank)
Box of floppies (originals) for Wordstar Professional release 5. Appears to
be two copies (both originals) all soft sector
Binder, northstar infomanager - manual but no diskettes :\
Binder, northstar infomanager II - manual but no diskettes :\
Manual - north star application software ASP utilites package Users manual
Manual - north star infomanager data management system
Manual - XL-Z80 software development system for the northstar micro disk
system
Manual - The north star disk operating system v2 rel 3
Release notes - release 4 system software changes north star computers 1978
Release notes - release 3 north star version 6 basic
Manual - North star basic version 6
Manual - north star system software manual addendum rev. 2.1
Manual - north star infomanager tutorial
Manual - north star horizon computer system (double density)
Manual - north star z80a processo board, zpb-a manual
Schematic - cromemco 16k memory board
Manual - zilog Z80-cpu Z80A-cpu technical manual
Manual - north star system software manual
Manual - north star 16k ram board
Release notes - XL-8080/XL-Z80 rel 5 software change description
Manual - cromemco 16k memory board technical manual
Manual - north star horizon computer system
Manual - north star z80a processor board zpb-a
Manual - Cromemco Z80 monitor instruction manual
Manual - Hazeltine 1420 reference manual
Product Data Sheet - Western Union model 32 telex KSR and ASR sets (NICE!)
Manual - Cromemco ZPU assembly
Schematic - Cromemco ZPU
Manual - Cromemco TU-ART digital interface
Scan/photocopies - Various Cromemco boards... trying to lift artwork maybe?
Manual - Cromemco 16kz ram instruction manual
Manual - Cromemco 16kz ram card technical manual (two copies)
One QUME QVT102 terminal
Two Hazeltine 1420 terminals
Three northstar horizon computers (two with wood trim, one with metal trim)
An external dual floppy drive for one of the three horizons
So, in all this mess, it sounds like there is no OS disks. Hopefully, there
are some Northstar fans around than can help :)
Regards,
Jay West
14 Jan
14 Jan
10:08 a.m.
So, in all this mess, it sounds like there is no OS
disks. Hopefully, there
are some Northstar fans around than can help :)
Hopefully there will be at least one boot disk among the "blank" floppies
that you have, as getting the OS into a horizon without a boot disk can
be difficult (not not impossible).
I have images for several NorthStar OS's on my site.
To transfer the images to physical disks, you need my NST program
(also available on the site) which transfers them serially to the Horizon
where a small client will write them to the hard-sector disks (hence
the problem if you don't already have a system booting).
First thing you need to do is determine for certain if you have the single
density or double density controller. I have photos of both on my site - I
would guess that you have the DD controller since you have a Horizon DD
manual, and by the other software mentioned.
If you can find a bootable version of NorthStar DOS, then you can transfer
my client to it (NST can "type" the client in to the NS Mxxxx monitor). Then
run the client and you can use NST on the PC to read/write disk from/to
image files (I have quite a few NS images available - and would welcome new
ones).
For people who don't have a bootable disk, I have created "in memory"
images for both the single and double density system which contains both
the OS and the NST client. The tough part is getting it "in memory" on a
Horizon, which has no front panel.
If have have a ROM board, easiest thing to do is to deselect RAM at 0000
and put in a ROM monitor. I used the older "loads at 2000" versions of N*
OS for the in-memory system, so you have 8K at 0000. You will also need
to change the power-on vector jumpers on the CPU board to activate
your ROM. (There is also 4K of "free" space from F000-FFFF is that
works out better for you).
More info on my site - give me a shout if you need help (I know lots about
N* systems!)
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
15 Jan
15 Jan
9:43 p.m.
New subject: northstar stuff
Dave Dunfield wrote....
Hopefully there will be at least one boot disk among
the "blank" floppies
that you have, as getting the OS into a horizon without a boot disk can
be difficult (not not impossible).
I have images for several NorthStar OS's on my site.
You're awesome Dave :)
I spent a little time tonight and got your wonderful
NST program working and downloaded some disk images from your site. I was
able to recreate the disk images pretty easily. Thanks for creating &
sharing NST (as well as the images). Yes, I found one disk still in one of
the drives that was bootable. It was an application disk and was missing
parts of the os, but it had dos and M0000 on it so I was in business.
If have have a ROM board, easiest thing to do is to
deselect RAM at 0000
and put in a ROM monitor. I used the older "loads at 2000" versions of N*
OS for the in-memory system, so you have 8K at 0000. You will also need
to change the power-on vector jumpers on the CPU board to activate
your ROM. (There is also 4K of "free" space from F000-FFFF is that
works out better for you).
Looks like two of the machines have three memory boards, one has one. I
believe each board is 16K? Two of the machines also have 8K SRAM boards. Two
have the prom option on the cpu, and one has an S100 extender board in it.
Nifty stuff :)
Jay West
18 Jan
18 Jan
5:11 p.m.
I"m looking for a NS Dimension if you should happen to
stumble upon one :).
--- Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Thought I'd throw out to the list what was in my
northstar haul, in case
there's something someone is desperate for a copy
of..
Unopened box of DC300XL cartridges (5) (these must
have gone with some other
system)
Opened box of DC300XL cartridges, 3 in original wrap
(these must have gone
with some other system)
Box of 14 (blank?) floppy disks, 10 sector (hard)
(hopefully not really
blank)
Box of floppies (originals) for Wordstar
Professional release 5. Appears to
be two copies (both originals) all soft sector
Binder, northstar infomanager - manual but no
diskettes :\
Binder, northstar infomanager II - manual but no
diskettes :\
Manual - north star application software ASP
utilites package Users manual
Manual - north star infomanager data management
system
Manual - XL-Z80 software development system for the
northstar micro disk
system
Manual - The north star disk operating system v2 rel
3
Release notes - release 4 system software changes
north star computers 1978
Release notes - release 3 north star version 6 basic
Manual - North star basic version 6
Manual - north star system software manual addendum
rev. 2.1
Manual - north star infomanager tutorial
Manual - north star horizon computer system (double
density)
Manual - north star z80a processo board, zpb-a
manual
Schematic - cromemco 16k memory board
Manual - zilog Z80-cpu Z80A-cpu technical manual
Manual - north star system software manual
Manual - north star 16k ram board
Release notes - XL-8080/XL-Z80 rel 5 software change
description
Manual - cromemco 16k memory board technical manual
Manual - north star horizon computer system
Manual - north star z80a processor board zpb-a
Manual - Cromemco Z80 monitor instruction manual
Manual - Hazeltine 1420 reference manual
Product Data Sheet - Western Union model 32 telex
KSR and ASR sets (NICE!)
Manual - Cromemco ZPU assembly
Schematic - Cromemco ZPU
Manual - Cromemco TU-ART digital interface
Scan/photocopies - Various Cromemco boards... trying
to lift artwork maybe?
Manual - Cromemco 16kz ram instruction manual
Manual - Cromemco 16kz ram card technical manual
(two copies)
One QUME QVT102 terminal
Two Hazeltine 1420 terminals
Three northstar horizon computers (two with wood
trim, one with metal trim)
An external dual floppy drive for one of the three
horizons
So, in all this mess, it sounds like there is no OS
disks. Hopefully, there
are some Northstar fans around than can help :)
Regards,
Jay West
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2 Feb
2 Feb
8:08 a.m.
Jay West wrote:
So, in all this mess, it sounds like there is no OS
disks. Hopefully,
there are some Northstar fans around than can help :)
Contact Allison Parent -- I'm certain she has every North* disk
imaginable and will be happy to share.
Unfortunately, she is no longer monitoring this list. She originally
unsubscribed during the Great Flame War which resulted in the
cctalk/cctech split -- along with quite a few other highly
knowledgable long-timers who had better things to do than wade
through a bunch of rants.
After two years, she decided to sign up again, but bailed because
of the (IMHO, and evidently hers too) *outrageous* "hand over the
code" opinions which were voiced regarding Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk
project.
Among other things, Allison is a top-notch expert and repository
of knowledge concerning DEC equipment, CP/M, and the 765, and
she is always willing to share information and help those in
need. As far as I can tell from my email exchanges with her, she
just couldn't stomach the belligerent and disrespectful *crap*
posted by those list-members -- and they know who they are --
who persisted in denigrating Mr. Dunfield and his contributions
to classic computing, even going so far as to state that he was
"harming the hobby."
Again, we have lost the contributions of an expert member of this
list due to the actions of a few self-righteous bullies, and
personally, I think it is a crying f*cking shame.
Glen Goodwin
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4 comments
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participants (4)
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acme_ent＠bellsouth.net -
chrism3667＠yahoo.com -
dave04a＠dunfield.com -
jwest＠classiccmp.org