Heathkit H-8 questions

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Wed Apr 28 21:09:17 1999

"Barry A. Watzman" wrote:
>
> 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.

Do you have any idea how many of these units were produced by Heath? Or to
put it more broadly, do you know the production numbers for other Heath
computer products? So far, I haven't heard any numbers and it would be MOST
interesting to at least have an idea! Thanks.
Received on Wed Apr 28 1999 - 21:09:17 BST