2 Jul
2018
2 Jul
'18
2:02 p.m.
I have a machine that I'm just now bringing up. I have some boot software but it is
TSS/A that is the accounting multi-user package. I'd really like the TSS/B floppies
instead. I'd settle for images.
Dwight
2 Jul
2 Jul
3:27 p.m.
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I have a machine that I'm just now bringing up. I
have some boot
software but it is TSS/A that is the accounting multi-user package. I'd
really like the TSS/B floppies instead. I'd settle for images.
Sounds like fun!
What model Northstar?
Once you get some images, have you worked out a way to get the images onto
hard-sector disks?
AFTER you boot the machine, with some minimal programs, you can transfer
data into the machine through serial port.
5:16 p.m.
I was thinking someone has already done this. If no, as you say, it is not an impossible
task.
The TSS/B is suppose to be their scientific package. It at least has BASIC in it. I have
another disk marked CP/M in the same box. I should be able to put something together under
CP/M.
It is a North Star Horizon. There seems to be some images out there so I don't know
how they are being captured.
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, July 2, 2018 3:27:09 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I have a machine that I'm just now bringing up. I
have some boot
software but it is TSS/A that is the accounting multi-user package. I'd
really like the TSS/B floppies instead. I'd settle for images.
Sounds like fun!
What model Northstar?
Once you get some images, have you worked out a way to get the images onto
hard-sector disks?
AFTER you boot the machine, with some minimal programs, you can transfer
data into the machine through serial port.
5:27 p.m.
Mike Douglas has a bunch of North Star utilities that you can use to "bare
metal bootstrap" disks:
http://deramp.com/northstar.html
Unless you have a stockpile of hard-sector disks, you probably also want
his Virtual Sector Generator board:
http://deramp.com/vsg.html
Thanks,
Jonathan
On Mon, Jul 2, 2018 at 8:16 PM, dwight via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I was thinking someone has already done this. If no,
as you say, it is not
an impossible task.
The TSS/B is suppose to be their scientific package. It at least has BASIC
in it. I have another disk marked CP/M in the same box. I should be able to
put something together under CP/M.
It is a North Star Horizon. There seems to be some images out there so I
don't know how they are being captured.
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via
cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, July 2, 2018 3:27:09 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I have a machine that I'm just now bringing
up. I have some boot
software but it is TSS/A that is the accounting multi-user package. I'd
really like the TSS/B floppies instead. I'd settle for images.
Sounds like fun!
What model Northstar?
Once you get some images, have you worked out a way to get the images onto
hard-sector disks?
AFTER you boot the machine, with some minimal programs, you can transfer
data into the machine through serial port.
5:48 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight wrote:
I was thinking someone has already done this. If no,
as you say, it is
not an impossible task.
It can be done. It has been done. It is not the easiest.
A friend did it, but he died 4 years ago, and his stuff is GONE.
There should be GOOGLE reachable stories of how people have done it, and
some .ASM or .HEX files of useful utilities.
The TSS/B is suppose to be their scientific package.
It at least has
BASIC in it. I have another disk marked CP/M in the same box. I should
be able to put something together under CP/M.
If you have CP/M, in a bootable form, then the utilities that come with
CP/M (PIP, LOAD, SAVE, . . . ) can be coerced into creating a
bootstrapping program to bring stuff over, to bring over more versatile
utilities, etc. PIP.COM, alas, is not an internal command.
If you use a PC as your terminal, you can come up with ways to move code.
You can PIP from the console. (to bring over a .ASM or .HEX file)
It is a North Star Horizon. There seems to be some
images out there so I
don't know how they are being captured.
The images are probably created on a NorthStar.
There exist some rather rare hardware boards for PC to read/write hard
sector. Not easily available.
It may be possible to use a flux-transition board that has access to the
index signal and write code to do it.
BUT, the Horizon can also manage 8" drives (SSSD soft-sector CP/M
standard!) with appropriate controller, or use other S100 FDC boards.
Once the CP/M system is up, there are utilities that have been written for
it (some assembly required), for serial port transfer.
I have no idea what's available for NorthStar-DOS, but there is probably
something around.
I think that the original drives of the Horizon were Shugart SA400, but
Tandon TM100-x should work just fine.
Good luck,
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
7:11 p.m.
On 07/02/2018 08:48 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Really? not any of the MDS (SD or DD) controllers as they only know hard
sector.??? A Soft sector controller with rom
on board then the situation changes.? Plan B is? a CPU with local eprom
and use that as the system monitor to boot
stuff to disk.
The standard NS controllers have only a small rom enough to boot a NS SD
or DD floppy using their controller
where the roms are.
On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight wrote:
PIP can be patched to be a modem handler.
I was thinking someone has already done this. If
no, as you say, it
is not an impossible task.
It can be done.? It has been done.? It is not the easiest.
A friend did it, but he died 4 years ago, and his stuff is GONE.
There should be GOOGLE reachable stories of how people have done it,
and some .ASM or .HEX files of useful utilities.
The TSS/B is suppose to be their scientific
package. It at least has
BASIC in it. I have another disk marked CP/M in the same box. I
should be able to put something together under CP/M.
If you have CP/M, in a bootable form, then the utilities that come
with CP/M (PIP, LOAD, SAVE, . . . ) can be coerced into creating a
bootstrapping program to bring stuff over, to bring over more
versatile utilities, etc.?? PIP.COM, alas, is not an internal command.
If you use a PC as your terminal, you can come up with ways to move code.
You can PIP from the console.?? (to bring over a .ASM or .HEX file)
It is a North
Star Horizon. There seems to be some images out there
so I don't know how they are being captured.
The images are probably created on a NorthStar.
There exist some rather rare hardware boards for PC to read/write hard
sector.? Not easily available.
It may be possible to use a flux-transition board that has access to
the index signal and write code to do it.
BUT, the Horizon can also manage 8" drives (SSSD soft-sector CP/M
standard!) with appropriate controller, or use other S100 FDC boards.
Once the CP/M system is up, there are utilities that have been written
for it (some assembly required), for serial port transfer.
IF you hae CP/M and bootable with Asm, DDt and PIP life gets real easy.?
Check Dave Dunfields site for
a s100/NS emulator that runs images (NS dos, CP/M and more) that can be
serially down loaded from
the emulator though the PC.
I have no idea what's available for NorthStar-DOS,
but there is
probably something around.
There is a lot of site with software , your friend google.?? I already
mentioned Dave donefields old computers.
Harte has some stuff too.? NS* systems were popular.
I think that the original drives of the Horizon were Shugart SA400,
but Tandon TM100-x should work just fine.
Either one and many others can be subbed in.
I have two NS* Horizons, one I assembled late 77 and the other nearly 30
years ago.? Both work.? Biggest issue
is media as 10 hole hard sector stuff is just plain scarce.??? The older
of mine runs a MDC4 765 based soft sector
controller and is an active highly modded CPM system.? The other is
vanilla and tucked away.
Allison
Good luck,
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred???????????? cisin at xenosoft.com
8:31 p.m.
> BUT, the Horizon can also manage 8" drives
(SSSD soft-sector CP/M
> standard!) with appropriate controller, or use other S100 FDC boards.
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, allison via cctalk wrote:
Really? not any of the MDS (SD or DD) controllers as
they only know hard
sector.?????? A Soft sector controller with rom
on board then the situation changes.?? Plan B is?? a CPU with local eprom
and use that as the system monitor to boot
stuff to disk.
The standard NS controllers have only a small rom enough to boot a NS SD
or DD floppy using their controller
where the roms are.
. . .
????? The older
of mine runs a MDC4 765 based soft sector
controller and is an active highly modded CPM system.?? The other is
vanilla and tucked away.
Really, I just assumed that you could install a non-NorthStar disk
controller, in addition to the stock one, or maybe instead, in order to
be able to do soft-sector.
3 Jul
3 Jul
6:05 a.m.
On 07/02/2018 11:31 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
You can but none of the NS* software will recognize
it and it
effectively makes the Horizon just another nice S100 crate.
The NS* software is well wrapped around the hard sector controller which
is actually crude but effective.
Unplug the disk controller and the system has no rom or front panel.?
Its why I have two.? One is a basic 56K NS horizon where the only board
not NS* is the static 64K ram card.
The other is NS* horizon box and mother board aka the bus has all the IO
for serial, parallel and
hearbeat interrupt at one end. But a faster Z80 card (10MHZ modded
compupro) 256K of ram,
hard disk controller, soft sector controller (765based) and several
slave controllers for moving
stuff and printer buffering.???
A lot of the NS systems were improved with soft sector controllers and a
phantom rom card if the
controller didn't have one.? The box was good quality fair cooling and a
beefy power supply.
Allison
> BUT, the
Horizon can also manage 8" drives (SSSD soft-sector CP/M
> standard!) with appropriate controller, or use other S100 FDC boards.
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, allison via cctalk wrote:
Really? not any of the MDS (SD or DD) controllers
as they only know hard
sector.??? A Soft sector controller with rom
on board then the situation changes.? Plan B is? a CPU with local eprom
and use that as the system monitor to boot
stuff to disk.
The standard NS controllers have only a small rom enough to boot a NS SD
or DD floppy using their controller
where the roms are.
. . . ??? The older
of mine runs a MDC4 765 based soft sector
controller and is an active highly modded CPM system.? The other is
vanilla and tucked away.
Really, I just assumed that you could install a non-NorthStar disk
controller, in addition to the stock one, or maybe instead, in order
to be able to do soft-sector.
6:14 a.m.
I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored disk. I still have the punch I had made for
my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of allison via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 6:05:23 AM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On 07/02/2018 11:31 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
You can but none of the NS* software will recognize
it and it
effectively makes the Horizon just another nice S100 crate.
The NS* software is well wrapped around the hard sector controller which
is actually crude but effective.
Unplug the disk controller and the system has no rom or front panel.
Its why I have two. One is a basic 56K NS horizon where the only board
not NS* is the static 64K ram card.
The other is NS* horizon box and mother board aka the bus has all the IO
for serial, parallel and
hearbeat interrupt at one end. But a faster Z80 card (10MHZ modded
compupro) 256K of ram,
hard disk controller, soft sector controller (765based) and several
slave controllers for moving
stuff and printer buffering.
A lot of the NS systems were improved with soft sector controllers and a
phantom rom card if the
controller didn't have one. The box was good quality fair cooling and a
beefy power supply.
Allison
> BUT, the
Horizon can also manage 8" drives (SSSD soft-sector CP/M
> standard!) with appropriate controller, or use other S100 FDC boards.
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, allison via cctalk wrote:
Really? not any of the MDS (SD or DD) controllers
as they only know hard
sector. A Soft sector controller with rom
on board then the situation changes. Plan B is a CPU with local eprom
and use that as the system monitor to boot
stuff to disk.
The standard NS controllers have only a small rom enough to boot a NS SD
or DD floppy using their controller
where the roms are.
. . . ? The older
of mine runs a MDC4 765 based soft sector
controller and is an active highly modded CPM system. The other is
vanilla and tucked away.
Really, I just assumed that you could install a non-NorthStar disk
controller, in addition to the stock one, or maybe instead, in order
to be able to do soft-sector.
11:08 a.m.
On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored disk. I
still have the punch
I had made for my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
If you have a working H89 (hard sectored), then you should be able to
write a program to run on the H89 to write hard sectored disk images!
Can it do single density 256 byte sectors? or MFM 512 byte sectors?
.ASM for PCTOFLOP should be available, as a guide to what you need, but
will need modification for the H89 disk controller.
Most of the NorthStar disk images should be availablem once you've got the
H89 writing disks from them!
Once you've got the NorthStar booting CP/M plus a copy of PIP, you can
then continue on it.
9:39 p.m.
I'm told that the N* controller can write H89 formated disk but the H89 controller
can't do N* format. I could have that backwards but that is what I recall. One
can't do the other.
The H89 hard sectored controller is single density only, while the newer N* can do both
single and double density, still hard sectored though. There is always confusion on the N*
controllers as to which can do double density. My research indicates that the MDC-nA are
single density only and the MDC-nDA can do both ( n is a rev. number 1, 2, 3, or 4).
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 11:08:18 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored disk. I
still have the punch
I had made for my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
If you have a working H89 (hard sectored), then you should be able to
write a program to run on the H89 to write hard sectored disk images!
Can it do single density 256 byte sectors? or MFM 512 byte sectors?
.ASM for PCTOFLOP should be available, as a guide to what you need, but
will need modification for the H89 disk controller.
Most of the NorthStar disk images should be availablem once you've got the
H89 writing disks from them!
Once you've got the NorthStar booting CP/M plus a copy of PIP, you can
then continue on it.
4 Jul
4 Jul
5:37 a.m.
Yeah, you do need a monitor or something to get started on either Mike
Douglas's solution or Dave Dunfield's NST. I've used both successfully.
If you have hard-sectored disks, I can just make you a boot disk. I have
both single and double density controllers.
Thanks,
Jonathan
On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 12:39 AM, dwight via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I'm told that the N* controller can write H89
formated disk but the H89
controller can't do N* format. I could have that backwards but that is what
I recall. One can't do the other.
The H89 hard sectored controller is single density only, while the newer
N* can do both single and double density, still hard sectored though. There
is always confusion on the N* controllers as to which can do double
density. My research indicates that the MDC-nA are single density only and
the MDC-nDA can do both ( n is a rev. number 1, 2, 3, or 4).
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via
cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 11:08:18 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored
disk. I still have the punch
I had made for my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
If you have a working H89 (hard sectored), then you should be able to
write a program to run on the H89 to write hard sectored disk images!
Can it do single density 256 byte sectors? or MFM 512 byte sectors?
.ASM for PCTOFLOP should be available, as a guide to what you need, but
will need modification for the H89 disk controller.
Most of the NorthStar disk images should be availablem once you've got the
H89 writing disks from them!
Once you've got the NorthStar booting CP/M plus a copy of PIP, you can
then continue on it.
9:35 a.m.
On 07/04/2018 08:37 AM, systems_glitch via cctalk wrote:
Yeah, you do need a monitor or something to get
started on either Mike
Douglas's solution or Dave Dunfield's NST. I've used both successfully.
If you have hard-sectored disks, I can just make you a boot disk. I have
both single and double density controllers.
Makes sure they are configured for the
NS* native IO.? If they are not
your still
stuck as then the OS is looking for an IO board that is foreign.
I know that as before the horizon I had the bare NS* MDS in the Altair
using the SIO as serial.?
Putting a boot monitor in is by far the easy way out.? I did that early on
and it has serial transfer and embedded loader for soft sector controller.
I rarely use the stock? NS* system but the older one with all the changes
is still in use.? Hard disk (2x 31mb) makes it more useful.
There is one excuse I use occasionally for pulling out the stock NS,
UCSD Pascal.? The first IDE.
Allison
Thanks,
Jonathan
On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 12:39 AM, dwight via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> I'm told that the N* controller can write H89 formated disk but the H89
> controller can't do N* format. I could have that backwards but that is what
> I recall. One can't do the other.
>
> The H89 hard sectored controller is single density only, while the newer
> N* can do both single and double density, still hard sectored though. There
> is always confusion on the N* controllers as to which can do double
> density. My research indicates that the MDC-nA are single density only and
> the MDC-nDA can do both ( n is a rev. number 1, 2, 3, or 4).
>
> Dwight
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via
> cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 11:08:18 AM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
>
> On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
>> I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored disk. I still have the punch
>> I had made for my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
> If you have a working H89 (hard sectored), then you should be able to
> write a program to run on the H89 to write hard sectored disk images!
> Can it do single density 256 byte sectors? or MFM 512 byte sectors?
>
> .ASM for PCTOFLOP should be available, as a guide to what you need, but
> will need modification for the H89 disk controller.
>
> Most of the NorthStar disk images should be availablem once you've got the
> H89 writing disks from them!
>
> Once you've got the NorthStar booting CP/M plus a copy of PIP, you can
> then continue on it.
>
>
>
11:50 a.m.
I've got a Horizon so native console is no problem.
I originally got Dave Dunfield's NST working with my IMSAI and Dajen SCI
monitor board, on a North Star MDC single-density controller. I couldn't
get NST configured properly with the Dajen monitor (you're supposed to be
able to give it a format for poking bytes into memory), so I ended up
customizing Dave's RAMless 512 byte monitor for the SCI's serial port and
getting loaded up that way.
Thanks,
Jonathan
On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 12:35 PM, allison via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 07/04/2018 08:37 AM, systems_glitch via cctalk
wrote:
Yeah, you do need a monitor or something to get
started on either Mike
Douglas's solution or Dave Dunfield's NST. I've used both successfully.
If you have hard-sectored disks, I can just make you a boot disk. I have
both single and double density controllers.
Makes sure they are configured for the
NS* native IO. If they are not
your still
stuck as then the OS is looking for an IO board that is foreign.
I know that as before the horizon I had the bare NS* MDS in the Altair
using the SIO as serial.
Putting a boot monitor in is by far the easy way out. I did that early on
and it has serial transfer and embedded loader for soft sector controller.
I rarely use the stock NS* system but the older one with all the changes
is still in use. Hard disk (2x 31mb) makes it more useful.
There is one excuse I use occasionally for pulling out the stock NS,
UCSD Pascal. The first IDE.
Allison
Thanks,
Jonathan
On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 12:39 AM, dwight via cctalk <
cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> I'm told that the N* controller can write H89 formated disk but the H89
> controller can't do N* format. I could have that backwards but that is
what
> I recall. One can't do the other.
>
> The H89 hard sectored controller is single density only, while the newer
> N* can do both single and double density, still hard sectored though.
There
> is always confusion on the N* controllers as
to which can do double
> density. My research indicates that the MDC-nA are single density only
and
> the MDC-nDA can do both ( n is a rev. number
1, 2, 3, or 4).
>
> Dwight
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin
via
> cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 11:08:18 AM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
>
> On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
>> I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored disk. I still have the punch
>> I had made for my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
> If you have a working H89 (hard sectored), then you should be able to
> write a program to run on the H89 to write hard sectored disk images!
> Can it do single density 256 byte sectors? or MFM 512 byte sectors?
>
> .ASM for PCTOFLOP should be available, as a guide to what you need, but
> will need modification for the H89 disk controller.
>
> Most of the NorthStar disk images should be availablem once you've got
the
> H89 writing disks from them!
>
> Once you've got the NorthStar booting CP/M plus a copy of PIP, you can
> then continue on it.
>
>
>
9:29 a.m.
On 07/04/2018 12:39 AM, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I'm told that the N* controller can write H89
formated disk but the H89 controller can't do N* format. I could have that backwards
but that is what I recall. One can't do the other.
The H89 hard sectored controller is single density only, while the newer N* can do both
single and double density, still hard sectored though. There is always confusion on the N*
controllers as to which can do double density. My research indicates that the MDC-nA are
single density only and the MDC-nDA can do both ( n is a rev. number 1, 2, 3, or 4).
Dwight
I had two H89s and neitehr coud do NS* format either way.? THe
controllers are very different.
I've seen more of them with softsector boards in them.
Allison
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 11:08:18 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On Tue, 3 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I'm not as worried about 10 hard secrtored
disk. I still have the punch
I had made for my H89. I can create 10 sector from old 360K disk.
If you have a
working H89 (hard sectored), then you should be able to
write a program to run on the H89 to write hard sectored disk images!
Can it do single density 256 byte sectors? or MFM 512 byte sectors?
.ASM for PCTOFLOP should be available, as a guide to what you need, but
will need modification for the H89 disk controller.
Most of the NorthStar disk images should be availablem once you've got the
H89 writing disks from them!
Once you've got the NorthStar booting CP/M plus a copy of PIP, you can
then continue on it.
2 Jul
2 Jul
7 p.m.
There is also NS* DOS very easy to find.? Basic DOS has the os, several
Monitors, and Basic.
People have it in IMD and a few other forms but making a disk is the
real challenge as
NO PC can do the hard sector.? There are two formats all 5.25" SD
10sectors of 256byts
and 35 tracks.? The other is 10sectors of 512byts and 35/40/and two
sided flavors.? They
are all 10 sector(holes) and hard sector.
Make sure it works with NS-DOS. as thats easiest to replace if the
controller is munged.
Allison
On 07/02/2018 08:16 PM, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I was thinking someone has already done this. If no,
as you say, it is not an impossible task.
The TSS/B is suppose to be their scientific package. It at least has BASIC in it. I have
another disk marked CP/M in the same box. I should be able to put something together under
CP/M.
It is a North Star Horizon. There seems to be some images out there so I don't know
how they are being captured.
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, July 2, 2018 3:27:09 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Looking for North star software
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
I have a machine that I'm just now bringing
up. I have some boot
software but it is TSS/A that is the accounting multi-user package. I'd
really like the TSS/B floppies instead. I'd settle for images.
Sounds like
fun!
What model Northstar?
Once you get some images, have you worked out a way to get the images onto
hard-sector disks?
AFTER you boot the machine, with some minimal programs, you can transfer
data into the machine through serial port.
3 Jul
3 Jul
6:13 a.m.
On 07/02/2018 06:27 PM, Fred Cisin via cctech wrote:
On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:
There are three basic systems:
Horizon Single density
Horizon Double density same as single save for newer controller.
Advanatage, not s100!
I have a machine that I'm just now bringing
up. I have some boot
software but it is TSS/A that is the accounting multi-user package.
I'd really like the TSS/B floppies instead. I'd settle for images.
Sounds like fun!
What model Northstar?
Once you get some images, have you worked out a way to get the images
onto hard-sector disks?
If you can get code into the box NS dos can write disks from memory
images.? The based NS* horizon
roms are minimal and only boot a disk.? The easy path is if everything
works get a copy of NS* DOS
and boot it.? Then IO via serial gets easy.
AFTER you boot the machine, with some minimal
programs, you can
transfer data into the machine through serial port.
Once NS*Dos or CP/M is there
yes.? Until then the box is pretty useless.
Plan B is get or make a Eprom board with a monitor utility into the
0000h or FXXXh ram block (max 4K).
Plan B' get a cpu card with rom on it.?
NOTE: pins 20 and 70 are grounded so any card that uses those pins will
likely have to be modded.
(those are memory protect and unprotect for that era, IEEE 696
reassigned them).
Allison
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