old-computers.com/website
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Full content from the completed page crawl (media download still running)

Browse Source 
6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
4,336 media files so far; references to files not downloaded yet are left out.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
This commit is contained in:
yann64
2026-10-12 07:55:22 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 785c4967be
commit 3eeabe9649
10027 changed files with 321638 additions and 24 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files
content/museum/heathkit-zenith-h-89.md
+223
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
---
title: HEATHKIT / ZENITH H-89
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1979'
cpus:
- Zilog Z80
params:
name: H-89
image: /media/museum/photos/h89.jpg
company: /companies/heathkit-zenith
company_name: HEATHKIT / ZENITH
specs:
- label: NAME
value: H-89
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Heathkit / Zenith
- label: TYPE
value: Professional Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: '1979'
- label: END OF PRODUCTION
value: '1983'
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: None
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Full stroke keyboard with numeric keypad
- label: CPU
value: Zilog Z80
- label: SPEED
value: 2.048 MHz
- label: RAM
value: From 16 KB up to 64 KB
- label: ROM
value: Custom bootup & monitor
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 80 chars. x 24 lines ( + one independant line)
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: No graphics mode. 33 graphic characters
- label: COLORS
value: Monochrome green phosphore display
- label: SOUND
value: Beep - HUG magazine had a article on how to use one of the serial ports as a crude
- label: I/O PORTS
value: RS232 (two, up to six), Centronics, IEEE 488
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: 90 KB floppy drive
- label: OS
value: HDOS, CP/M, MP/M
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Built-in power supply unit
- label: PRICE
value: $1,800 as kit in 1979 w/ 1 floppy drive
tabs:
- photos
- adverts
- hardware
- software
photos:
- title: H89 AND H77 FD UNIT
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Complete Heathkit H89 system with the H77 F.D. unit and the Heathkit H-14 serial printer.
The H77 unit had a storage capacity of 150 KB x 2. This configuration allowed a system disk to be installed in the H89 integrated floppy and data disks in the external unit drives.
image: /media/museum/photos/heathkit_h89_h89-h77_1.jpg
- title: THE PERFORATED RUBBON READER
subtitle: ''
text: it can read 50 characters / second and write 10 characters / seconds
image: /media/museum/photos/rub_h11.jpg
- title: H/Z-67 HARD DISK UNIT
subtitle: ''
text: It contained one 10MB 8" winchester drive and one 8" floppy drive
image: /media/museum/photos/p_z891.jpg
- title: Z-47 (8'' FDD)
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/p_z892.jpg
- title: THE H19 / Z19 TERMINAL
subtitle: ''
text: This terminal is simply a H89 system without the logic CPU board and disk storage. It was called Heathkit H19 in kit form and Zenith Z19 in assembled form. It could be connected to any system via a serial connection.
image: /media/museum/photos/heathkit_h19_terminal_1.jpg
- title: UNOPENED KIT
subtitle: ''
text: When a customer ordered a H89 in kit version, he received five boxes. The 5th. one holded the case, floppy disc drive and manuals
image: /media/museum/photos/heathkit_h89_kitunopened_4.jpg
- title: DUST COVER
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/heathkit_h89_dustcover_1.jpg
adverts:
- title: 1979 RANGE ADVERT
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Advert shows:
\- the **WH89** computer ($2295)\
\- the **WH11A** 16-bit computer, DEC PDP 11/03 compatible ($1895)\
\- the **WH19** video terminal ($995)\
\- the **WH26** dual floppy disc system ($2595)\
\- the **WH14** serial printer ($895)
To note: in 1979, the company name was **Heath Schlumberger data systems.**
image: /media/museum/pubs/heathkit_h89_pub_2.jpg
- title: 1980 RANGE ADVERT
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Advert said:
Choose from three computer systems:\
The H-89 All-In-One Computer gives you everything in one compact, convenient unit.\
The flexible H8 gives you the freedom to combine memory and interfacing for exactly the system you require.\
And the powerful H11A gives you 16-bit power for your most complex programs.\
The Heathkit line includes video terminals, matrix and letter quality printers, and accessories. You'll even find award-winning self-instruction packages to teach yourself programming in Basic or Assembly.
image: /media/museum/pubs/heathkit_h89_pub_1.jpg
- title: 1982 HEATHKIT CENTERS
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/heathkit_h89_pub_3.jpg
- title: 'HEATHKIT CENTERS #2'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/heathkit_h89_pub_4.jpg
- title: HEATH 19 TERMINAL (1982)
subtitle: ''
text: |-
$595 was the price in kit form, F.O.B. Benton Harbor...\
The assembled version, called Zenith Z-19, costed $895. An expensive price, not compatible with a home computer budget.
image: /media/museum/pubs/heathkit_h19_pub_1.jpg
- title: FRENCH ADVERT (JAN. 1982)
subtitle: ''
text: '"Adopt a little gifted"'
image: /media/museum/pubs/zenith-heathkit_h89_french-pub_1.jpg
hardware:
- title: EXTERNAL DRIVES
subtitle: ''
text: Here is a H89 with Hard and Soft Sectors floppy-drives, along with hard-disk drive at the bottom....
image: /media/museum/hardware/heathkit_h89_complete_1.jpg
- title: FLOPPY AND HARD-DRIVES
subtitle: ''
text: Hard and Soft Sectors floppy-drives, along with hard-disk drive.
image: /media/museum/hardware/heathkit_h89_drives_1.jpg
- title: H77 FD UNIT
subtitle: ''
text: 2 x 150 KB 5.25" drives unit with its dust cover.
image: /media/museum/hardware/heathkit_h89_h77fdunit_1.jpg
screenshots:
- title: HDOS MANUAL
subtitle: ''
text: Floppy discs operating system manual
image: /media/museum/software/heathkit_h89_hdosmanual_1.jpg
comments:
- author: Jim Nelson (United States)
date: Sunday 17th February 2019
text: jtnelsoniii(at)netscape.net
- author: Jim Nelson (United States)
date: Sunday 17th February 2019
text: Looking for one of these computers to buy. Email me if you have one to sell.
- author: Jason H. Jester (Earth)
date: Thursday 22nd March 2018
text: I was very lucky to have a father working in computing in the 1960''s through now. In 1980 he purchased an H89 kit and allowed me to do the entire assembly and learn CP/M. I also messed around in BASIC and Turbo Pascal on it for the summer between my fifth and sixth grades. I had plenty of time on computers before it, but the assembly of the H89 really taught me how systems work. By winter my dad had written some software for a local franchise owner to better manage his operations and the H89 got a new home. I did get to see it in use a few times after. Not until I got an Amiga 1000 did another computer mean as much to me. I have built and assembled many systems of various scales over the years. This will always be my first.
- author: Jeff Joseph (Norfolk, VA)
date: Monday 5th June 2017
text: The H89, when compared with the TRS-80s by Radio Shack, could be considered the equivilant of a Model 3½ or "Three and a half". In other words, it was about halfway in power and features between a Model 3 (1980) and a Model 4 (1983). It could go to 64K RAM and the Model 3 was limited to 48K, but the Model 4 had 64K and could go to 128K. The H89 used a 2 Mhz Z80 like the Model 3$ the Model 4 ran at 4 Mhz. (though the H89 could be upgraded to 4 Mhz, the Model 4 could upgrade to 6 Mhz). The H89 had a big 80x24 screen like the Model 4, but the characters were alot fuzzier on the screen. (the Model 3 was 64x16). The keyboard on the H89 had a much better feel than the Model 4, though. Both could run CP/M, but the Model 4 had its own large library of TRSDOS 6 programs and ran all Model 3 programs as well. There was a company that made a one megabyte RAM board, and it was easy to install because it went into the H89''s card cage. The Model 4 could be upgraded to one megabyte, but you had
to do alot of soldering on the CPU board. The H89 RAM board could be used only as a RAMdisk$ the Model 4 board had drivers which permitted its RAM to be used as general-purpose expansion memory for TRSDOS applications through its standard @BANK supervisor call.
- author: James Starbird (Van Buren, Arkansas)
date: Tuesday 25th February 2014
text: I assembled a H89 whilst Principal at an elementary school. Wrote a program to number-crunch attendance for the dreaded Quarterly Report. The Superintendent saw it, and bought a TRS 80 for his needs. Mine was the first. Also played the horse race game on it, and figured out how to rename the horses after the School Board members. Computers for teaching came rapidly after this beginning.
- author: Linda Adams (Northern Virginia)
date: Wednesday 2nd May 2012
text: This was the first computer my father bought so he could research how to do fusion through computer programming. My brother designed a Pacman program on (it was very primitive in the graphics area), and I did writing. It had to be booted up with a disk, and in those days, software did not have backups. One time I was saving a file, and it was too big for the disk, for the computer abandoned it!
- author: Sergey (Moscow, Russia)
date: Tuesday 20th March 2012
text: |-
Wanted this computer. I will pay any postage costs!
megabyte2003(at)list.ru
- author: Brian Gregory (UK)
date: Saturday 6th November 2010
text: I was given one of these by one of my lecturers when I finished at university in 1983. Great fun. I modified it to so you it could switch to run at 4.096MHz (double speed). It had no soft sectored controller and Heath had stopped making them so I made myself one on veroboard, but using a more modern (but compatible) controller chip to make it easier to build. Later I added a RAM disk by, among other things, replacing all the old 16Kb RAM chips with 8 more modern 256Kb chips. I stopped using it once I got an Amstrad PC2286 and later sold it for £50.
- author: Alexander P. (USA)
date: Monday 12th September 2005
text: for those who have heard of the Hero 1 robot, i believe this was one of the terminals you could use to program it, right?
- author: 1AJS (WINNIPEGF CANADA)
date: Tuesday 18th November 2003
text: |-
I AM LOOKIG FOR 5 RAM CHIPS FOR THE 1978 VERION OF THIS COMPUTER\
WITH OUT THESE CHIPS I CAN'T USE IT
oc_id: 135
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230331021329/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=135
date: '2023-03-31'
---
The H-89 was sold under the two names: **Heathkit H-89** and **Zenith Data Systems Z-89**. The H-89 was sold in kit form, the Z-89 came assembled.
It originally came with 16 KB of memory, later versions provided up to 48KB on the main CPU board (in groups of 1 KB chips). Zenith and Heathkit offered a 16 KB expansion card ($120) for a total of 64 KB when using CP/M.
The system was identical to the **H-19** video terminal but had an additional CPU board between the CRT and the terminal board. (Really identical because Heath offered upgrade kits to convert an H-19 to an H-88/H-89 computer).
It used hard sectored disks with a built-in card controller. Under either H-DOS or CP/M, disk capacity was of 90 KB. Another model the **H-88** was identical to the H-89, but did not include the floppy drive or controller. It had a cassette port.
A couple of years later, the **H/Z-37** soft sectored controller and ROMS came out, then was replaced with a double 5.25" floppy disk drive called **H/Z-87** (102 KB, 250 ms). A double 8" floppy disk drive called **H/Z-47** (1 Mb each) and a hard disk called **H/Z-67**, it contained one 10MB 8" winchester drive and one 8" floppy drive (like the one in the H/Z-47).
It ran under **HDOS** or **CP/M** (the operating system used 16 KB of RAM).\
HDOS was originally written for the [H-8](/museum/heathkit-h8/), it ran without modification on the '89. This was a single-user OS written by J. Gordon Letwin for Heath. It included a Basic interpreter and assembler.\
For CP/M, H/Z wrote a custom BIOS in assembler that the new user could further customize for his specific hardware and assemble right on the machine.\
A version of **MP/M** was also available for the system.
A lot of extension boards were available for this computer including 64 KB memory boards, hard-disk controller cards, 3-port serial I/O board, H19 terminal board, etc.\
A third party small upgrade card was also offered which doubled the processor speed to 4 Mhz.
An assembler/debugger was given with the DOS. A paper tape reader was available as well. Microsoft has adapted its various programming languages (Basic, Fortran, Cobol) for this computer. Borland also offered a version of Turbo Pascal that worked great with the CP/M.
**Dennis** reports:\
The base H-89 had no graphic modes, just 33 graphic characters. At least two different add-on boards were created that gave the H-89 bitmapped graphics capabilities, but I'm pretty sure they both required hardware modifications to tie them in to the terminal board - this was not a simple plug-in expansion card