Northstar Horizon

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Wed Nov 3 00:45:00 1999

That's about the price range I remember too. OTOH, I used to get the
Integrand box and, separately of course, the CCS CPU, CCS 64K DRAM board,
and CCS FDC for about $980. Two of the Misubishi MB2894 (?) DSDD 8" drives
cost $780, though, and the system still needed a dumb terminal. For that I
normally used a Televideo 920, or, later, 910. Those also cost about $750
back then. It wasn't cheap, no matter how you turned it.

With that combination, I was able to put out a computer system which had a
decent display, decent performance, and generally acceptable storage for
around $3k with a few bucks in my pocket if I shopped carefully. It was
easier, of course, if the client already had some stuff, like a printer and
a terminal.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Stek <bobstek_at_ix.netcom.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 7:19 PM
Subject: RE: Northstar Horizon


>Define late entry. The N* Product Catalog I have in front of me is dated
>January, 1978 and it says:
>
>"North Star Computers ... was incorporated in June, 1976. ...North Star
now
>offers a complete S-100 bus computer."
>
>I'd have to dig out more definitive references, but it seems likely that
the
>Horizon was first offered in 1977. The price at the time was $1599 (kit)
or
>$1899 (assembled) for the Horizon 12-slot motherboard with built in serial
>port (additional serial or parallel port was $39), RTC, chassis and cover,
>15A _at_ 8v, 6A @+/- 16v power supply, with 4 MHz Z-80, 16k RAM, disk
>controller, and one Shugart minifloppy. (A second Shugart was $400!) The
>CPU board listed for $199, and the 16K RAM for $399 - parity option was $39
>(I remember reading warnings about using dynamic RAM w/o parity 'cause
stray
>cosmic rays were likely to corrupt your memory at admittedly infrequent
>times!)
>
>Bob Stek
>bobstek_at_ix.netcom.com
>Saver of Lost SOLs
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: CLASSICCMP-owner_at_u.washington.edu
>[mailto:CLASSICCMP-owner_at_u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
>Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 1:29 PM
>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
>Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon
>
>
>The N* Horizon was a late entry in the S-100 market, and, though it was
>priced competitively with CROMEMCO and VECTOR GRAPHICS systems, it didn't
>come in at a lower price than component systems using boards purchased
>individually based on comparison-shopping for the best price/function
>tradeoff.
>
Received on Wed Nov 03 1999 - 00:45:00 GMT