NorthStar Horizon
 |
|
A NorthStar Horizon computer
|
|
| Manufacturer | NorthStar Computers |
|---|---|
| Type | Personal Computer |
| Release date | November 1977 |
| Introductory price | $1899 Assembled $1599 as a Kit |
| Discontinued | Early 1980's |
| Units sold | 10,000-100,000+ |
| Operating system | CP/M, NorthStar DOS |
| CPU | Z-80 @ 4MHz |
| Memory | 16K or more |
| Storage | 5.25 floppy drive(s) holds 90KB each |
| Display | Monochrome |
| Graphics | Text Mode only |
| Sound | None |
| Power | Integrated 250W P.S.U. |
| Dimensions | 50.8 x 44.4 x 18.4 cm |
| Weight | 20 kg |
| Successor | NorthStar Advantage |
The NorthStar Horizon was a popular 8-bit S-100 bus computer introduced in October 1977. Like most S-100 machines of the era, it was built around the ZiLOG Z80A microprocessor, and typically ran the CP/M operating system. It was produced by North Star Computers, and it could be purchased either in kit form or pre-assembled. The NorthStar Horizon was one of the first computers to have built in floppy drives as well as being one of the first computers to have a hard disk drive.
The computer consists of a thick aluminium chassis separated into left and right compartments with a plywood cover which sat on the top and draped over the left and right sides. (It is one of only a handful of computers to be sold in a wooden cabinet. Later versions featured an all-metal case which met safety standards.) The rear section of the compartment on the right held a linear power supply, including a large transformer and power capacitors, comprising much of the bulk and weight of the system. The empty section in front of the power supply normally housed one or two floppy disk drives, placed on their side so the slots were vertical. The compartment on the left held the S-100 motherboard, rotated so the slots ran left-right. Although a few logic circuits were on the motherboard, primarily for I/O functions, both the processor and the memory resided in separate daughterboards.
Capable of running CP/M and NSDOS (NorthStar's proprietary Disk Operating System), a standard NorthStar system sported one or two hard-sectored 5.25 inch floppy disk drives and a serial interface to which one could connect a terminal to interact with it. NSDOS included NorthStar BASIC, a slightly non-standard dialect of BASIC, where some standard BASIC commands of the day had been changed, probably to avoid potential legal issues. Two examples of this were the FILL and EXAM commands, which took the place of the more common PEEK and POKE.
...
Wikipedia