Note Type
General NotesNote
The North Star Horizon was a popular 8-bit S-100 bus computer introduced in October 1977.[1][2][3] 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.[4] The North Star Horizon was one of the first computers to have built in floppy drives [5] as well as being one of the first personal computers to have a hard disk drive.[6]
The 10 slot motherboard had its own circuitry for port IO's. The power supply was massive -- even by IMSAI standards. The Horizon was an Z80A-based computer, typically with 16K to 64K of RAM. It has one or two single-sided double density hard sectored floppy disk drives. It had serial interfaces connect it to a computer terminal and a printer. It ran CP/M or NorthStar's own proprietary HDOS.
[1] North Star Computer Catalogs (PDF). North Star Computer. 1979.
[2] "S-100 Bus / IEEE-696 Archive: North Star Computers Manuals". www.hartetechnologies.com. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
[3] "NorthStar Horizon computer". oldcomputers.net. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
[4] "Horizon, The Complete Computer". Byte. 2 (10). Peterborough NH: Green Publishing: 21. October 1977. The introductory advertisement for the North Star Horizon computer. The price for a Z80 CPU, 16K of RAM and a single floppy drive was $1599 kit and $1899 assembled. Dual drive systems were $1999 kit and $2349 assembled.
[5] "NorthStar Horizon computer". www.oldcomputers.net. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
[6] "NorthStar Horizon Personal Computer". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 26 July 2016.Note Type
Object Specific InformationNote
This item contains just the chassis, power supply and motherboard/backplane. All S-100 cards that may have been in this machine and are in the Ray E. Murray collection were stored separately.
This item was purchased from the estate of Ray E. Murray through his son-in-law Max Law as part of Mr. Murray's complete collection of computers, accessories, software and documentation.
(More details coming soon.)