2 Nov
1999
2 Nov
'99
4:28 a.m.
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. As I mentioned previously, I used the SD Systems or CCS boards.
Both of these CPU's included an on-board serial port which was used by the
firmware as the console port. What's more, their FDC's handled both drive
sizes, albeit in soft-sectored format only, straight out of the box.
I don't remember the details of the comparison shopping ventures, but would
not have used individually chosen boards or, in the case of CCS, board sets,
if there were no price advantage. The CCS board set was always quite
trouble-free, and the SD Systems memory boards were the only boards of
theirs that ever gave me headaches, though that was seldom.
The N* didn't work well with KONAN (SMD) or MSC HDC's either. I didn't
investigate this full, however. It didn't work, well, on to the next one.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: allisonp(a)world.std.com <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon
On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> Yes, there were several ways in which the N* could be modified to work
> better and meet the target of providing a full 64K TPA and handling CP/M
> standard diskettes.
>
> The easiest way, however, was to use hardware from other MFG's, which
didn't
require
modification. It happens that hardware from other MFG's was less
costly as well.
Well in 1978 (early) that was not the case, sure there were lots of
players and junk but the minifloppy was still quite new and people were
not quite able to get clear of sticker shock for 32k of ram!
The NS* was a good cpu, good box (backplane and basic serial/parallel IO)
That for the price was good. There were other boxes, but the really nice
stuff I lusted for were appearing in the early 80s. By then the NS* was
hard at work (with upgrades).
Allison
2 Nov
2 Nov
11:07 a.m.
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.
12:33 p.m.
On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Bob Stek wrote:
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."
The MDS-A was available about some 6months earlier. I bought mine MDS-A
in very early 77. The CPU a few weeks later and the box in mid spring
78. They were a mid player in the S100 market with MITS, IMSAI and POLY88
being the early players.
To put some perspective around it. Around the time TRS80s with disk were
becomming common with TRSdos, the NS* ran NS*dos, CPM and UCSD Pascal
P-system. The Apple][ was the other one that ran that pascal!
I paid $799 for the box and I already had the disk system and CPU.
(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!)
That noise was on the streets a year later. I was working for NEC then
(upd416 16k dynamic).
Allison
9182
days inactive
9182
days old
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