Heathkit H-8 questions

From: Barry A. Watzman <Watzman_at_ibm.net>
Date: Wed Apr 28 20:14:53 1999

The Heathkit H-8 was made from about 1977-78 to about 1981-82. It was an 8080 computer (Z-80 boards became available later), proprietary bus [there were a very few 3rd party source cards]. It originally ran HDOS [Heath Disk Operating System], which was not compatible with anything; Heath went to CP/M around 1980-81, which required changing the memory map of the machine [it had it's system ROM in low memory]. The front panel was implemented in firmware and was octal [thank you Gordon Letwin] [who left Heath for Microsoft in 1978, after designing much of the Heath architecture and software/firmware]. The system was originally cassette based, then the H-17 was introduced [hard sectored floppies, SSSD, 100k or so], and near the very end the H-37 components [DSDD 5", based on a Western Digital controller]. It was an "ok" but unexceptional machine, inferior to the better S-100 stuff available at the time.

The H-89 and its variants incorporated the same basic architecture in a very user-friendly "All-in-one" package, and with a Z-80 instead of an 8080 [but only 2 MHz]. The H-89 was among the most solid, reliable and user friendly CP/M systems available at the time and made a good, if not fast [even by the standards of the day] business system for the 1979 to 1982 time frame.

Barry Watzman

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From: bluoval [SMTP:bluoval_at_mindspring.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 1999 2:34 AM
To: classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu
Subject: Heathkit H-8 questions

I saw a H-8 on eBay tonight. What year were these made? What could one
do with it? From the photo it has a 16 key keypad, numbers 1-9 and the
math symbols, decimal point, and 2 others i can't make out. What are
those 2 keys? I'm not trying to buy it, I wouldn't know what to do
with it even if i did. just curious. TIA.
Received on Wed Apr 28 1999 - 20:14:53 BST