Heathkit H-8 questions

From: Christian Fandt <cfandt_at_netsync.net>
Date: Thu Apr 29 07:08:03 1999

Upon the date 08:23 PM 4/28/99 -0700, David C. Jenner said something like:
>I think the sources to HDOS were put in the public domain by Zenith
>back before they disappeared. Are they still around somewhere?

Ah, Barry and Dave, that's what I barely recall may have happened myself. I
knew HDOS 3 was a project undertaken by several of the HDOS gurus back in
the mid-to-late-1980's but I lost track of it. I can't lay my hands on them
for awhile as they're buried in the depths of my library storage section,
but I recall a lot of discussion in either the BUSS newsletter or SEXTANT
magazine regarding this. There was a bunch of very functional enhancements
to the old HDOS and I wanted to get it, but back then I had few re$ource$.
So, I put my toys away and forgot about them :(

Also, wasn't the Watzman ROM an enhanced H89/90 ROM or was it for the H8?
Danged old age causing brain cells to wander off and get lost . . .

Also once again Barry, recall Trionyx (sp?) Electronics? In Tustin, CA,
IIRC. Bill Perry was the character who owned the company which made several
interesting boards and a rather good high speed motherboard. I bought his
m'brd. for my H8 along with the rather complex C-H8 multifunction disk
controller board which I never got running (his last product). Gotta dig
that board out and do some hacking someday.

Although he had seemingly grandiose dreams for the H8 according to his
style of writing in his sales literature, several of Bill's designs did
work. I never bought his Z80 CPU board, I had the Heath-issue unit. There
were two other third-party CPU board suppliers (D-G Electronics and who
else?) Dang! There goes that brain-rot again . . .

Nevertheless, thanks for reviving a few of my fond old memories of the good
ol' days of Heath Computer Hacking! One could really hotrod his/her H8 or
especially the H89/90. :-) :-)

>
>Dave
>
>"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.
>>
>> Barry Watzman
>>
>> ----------
>> 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.

Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
        URL: http://www.ggw.org/awa
Received on Thu Apr 29 1999 - 07:08:03 BST

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