website/content/museum/northstar-horizon.md

---
title: Northstar Horizon
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1977'
cpus:
- Zilog Z80
params:
  name: Horizon
  image: /media/museum/photos/northstar_horizon.jpg
  logo: /media/museum/logos/northstar_horizon_logo.gif
  company: /companies/northstar
  company_name: Northstar
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Horizon
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Northstar
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1977'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Serial terminal
  - label: CPU
    value: Zilog Z80
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: None
  - label: RAM
    value: 16 KB (up to 64 KB)
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: 1 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 chars. x 24 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: Text mode only
  - label: COLORS
    value: Monochrome
  - label: SOUND
    value: No sound
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 50.8 (W) x 44.4 (D) x 18.4 (H) cm / About 20 kg
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: 12-slot S100 BUS, Serial and Parallel ports
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: One or Two 5.25'' FDD. Later 5 and 18 MB Hard disk drives, 13.4 MB tape backup
  - label: OS
    value: Northstar DOS
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Integrated 250W P.S.U.
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: S-100 Bus cards
  - label: PRICE
    value: |-
      Horizon-1: $1599 (kit) $1899 (assembled)\
      Horizon-2: $1999 (kit) $2349 (assembled)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  photos:
  - title: UNCOVERED SYSTEM
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/northstar_horizon_uncovered_1.jpg
  - title: APPLICATION SOFTWARE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      NorthStar was one of the first general public computer manufacturers to understand that a computer without quality software had no future. Therefore they proposed a full range of professional applications specially adapted to Horizon. The first proposed software were:\
      **- NorthWord** A word processing system which was the central building block for all the Nortstar applications,\
      **- MailManager** which can maintain complete organized mailing lists,\
      **- InfoManager** a data management system,\
      **- GeneralLedger** a general ledger and financial reporting.
    image: /media/museum/photos/northstar_horizon_software_1.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: 'NORTHSTAR BROCHURE #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      NorthStar brochure, Page 1.\
      The brochure says:

      **HARDWARE**\
      The HORIZON computer incorporates a high speed 4 MHz Z80A microprocessor with 64Kb of Dynamic RAM including parity and two 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drives in an attractive desk top chassis. The chassis also provides a 12-slot S-100 mother board which contains a Real-Time Interrupt, two RS-232C serial ports, one 8-bit parallel port and power regulation circuitry for the integrated floppy disk drives. Either a 115 or 230 volt power supply with sufficient power for all 12 slots and the disk drives is also included. The use of high speed (200 nsec) Dynamic RAM and "fast stepping" floppy disk drives, along with the 4 MHz CPU, delivers the highest average performance of all comparable microcomputers as measured by independent benchmark studies!

      **SOFTWARE**\
      The power and versatility of the HORIZON computer is further enhanced by a wide range of system and application software. For business use, the comprehensive North Star Application Software Packages offer Word Processing, Accounting and Financial Reporting in either single user or multi-user versions. For the scientific, engineering, or education oriented user, North Star's powerful DOS operating system with its efficient BASIC or Pascal languages are available. The industry standard CP/M operating system is also compatible with applications packages in MicroSoft BASIC, FORTRAN, and COBOL.

      Thanks to **Gordon Dyer** from England
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_brochure_s1.jpg
  - title: 'NORTHSTAR BROCHURE #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      NorthStar brochure - Page 2 **EXPANSION OPTIONS**

      **HRAM.64** - High Speed 64Kb Dynamic RAM memory board with parity (up to a total of six)\
      **HSIO.4** - Four Serial Port Expansion Board (RS-232C or Current Loop).\
      **FPB** - Floating Point Arithmetic Board.\
      **ADC-2D** - Two additionaI 5 1/4 inch Double capacity floppy disk drives incorporated within a cabinet (360 Kb total capacity).\
      **ADC-2Q** - Two additionaI 5 1/4 inch Quad capacity floppy disk drives incorporated within a cabinet (720 Kb total capacity).\
      **HDS-5** - 5 1/4 inch Winchester Hard Disk 5 Mb formatted capacity.\
      **HDS-18** - 14 inch Winchester Hard Disk 18 Mb formatted capacity.\
      **Tape Backup** - 13.4 Mb Tape Backup system for HDS-18 or HDS-5.\
      **CRT** - Hazeltine 1420/Soroc 120. (Other software drivers available.)\
      **Printer** - 35 or 55 cps letter quality printer.

      Thanks to **Gordon Dyer** from England
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_brochure_s2.jpg
  - title: U.S. ADVERT (1977)
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Advert price list:

      16K RAM: **$399** (kit) **$459** (assembled)\
      Parity option: **$39** (kit) **$59** (assembled)\
      Floating point board: **$259** (kit) **$359** (assembled)\
      Z80 board: **$199** (kit) **$259** (assembled)
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_pub_2.jpg
  - title: U.S. ADVERT (1979)
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      New version with Shugart 360 KB formatted capacity floppy drives. Advert said:

      North Star has quadrupled the disk capacity of the Horizon computer but prices have increased a modest 15 percent. On a dollar per byte basis, that's a bargain that is hard to beat!...

      1979 prices for assembled versions including 32KB RAM, one parallel and two serial I/O ports:\
      1 F.D. version: **$2565**\
      2 F.D. version: **$3215**
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_pub_3.jpg
  - title: FRENCH AD (JAN. 1980)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_pub_locasyst_1.jpg
  - title: U.S. ADVERT (1982)
    subtitle: ''
    text: This advert shows all the tools a software developer could run on the MorthStar computers range (Horizon and Advantage)
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_pub_4.jpg
  - title: US ADVERT (APRIL 1982)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: NORTHSTAR CARDS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Northstar also designed cards for S100 Bus. These cards were used in the Horizon and were also available separately for competing systems.\
      Cards on the photo are:\
      \- 16 KB RAM board ($459 assembled)\
      \- Micro Disk System (card & interface) to connect Shugart FDD ($799)\
      \- Z80A processor board ($259 without EPROM option, $330 with)\
      \- Hardware floating point card ($359).
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_cards_1.jpg
  - title: FRENCH ADVERT (1982)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/pubs/northstar_horizon_ad1.jpg
  comments:
  - author: George Worley (USA )
    date: Friday 27th November 2020
    text: I owned a Northstar Horizon back in the late 1970s. I don''t remember TurboDOS being available for it. I had 3 different OSes NSDOS, CP/M, and MP/M. I also had two 10MB hard drives that I have seen no reference to anywhere as I only see 5MB listed.. It was one of the first computers to offer any type of Hard Drive. Used it to run a BBS for 10 years.
  - author: Brad (US)
    date: Tuesday 10th December 2019
    text: North Star S-100 boards. I have several. Email me please bt89162@gmail.com
  - author: Brad (US)
    date: Tuesday 10th December 2019
    text: I got about a dozen or so North Star boards. I want to sell them and I can’t find them anywhere online accept a person out of country. Can anyone direct me where to sell them and what I should ask? I’m not trying to get rich, I just want to be treated fare. I’m
  - author: TransParent (CT/USA)
    date: Wednesday 17th January 2018
    text: My first job out of college in 1981 was in the Environmental Hygiene Laboratory at Olin Corporation in New Haven, CT. There was a Northstar Horizon PC with a Hazeltine terminal (monitor and keyboard in one unit). It also had an acoustically coupled modem for dial-up connections. In addition, there was a daisy wheel printer (I do not remember the brand) connected to it. The Industrial Hygenists in our department would use that setup for word processing. I used it for connecting to the mainframe to edit COBOL programs (even though I was a chemist in the lab, I had taken courses in college for BASIC, Fortran 77 and assembly language).
  - author: Mark A. Forte (Virginia)
    date: Saturday 22nd June 2013
    text: I had a computer store named Computer Junction and was a Northstar dealer. I still have a Northstar Horizon with 5 MB hard disk in its original box. The system also employed a Soroc terminal and I have one of those too. We sold word processors based on a Vector Graphic S100 bus computer combined with a graphics card and video monitor. The system used a Diablo printer and sold for $9000.
  - author: Anonomous (Owatonna, Minnesota, USA 55060)
    date: Thursday 28th March 2013
    text: |-
      Hello,\
      I''m not sure if you are aware of this but a computer shop located in Owatonna, Minnesota is doing business under the name "North Star Computers". It is owned by a gentleman named Eric (not sure of his last name) but they are located at 707 North Elm Ave, Owatonna MN 55060. 507-413-5250 is their listed phone number, eric@northstarcomputersmn.com is their email and their website can be viewed at http://www.northstarcomputersmn.com\
      I know how hard it is to build a business not to mention someone taking your business name. Just thought I''d let you know in the event you want to look into it.

      Best Regards.\
      Anonymous Sender
  - author: Jim Watt (Gibraltar)
    date: Tuesday 5th June 2012
    text: We sold Northstar computers for a number of years, starting with the CP/M models and ending up with the TurboDos systems which supported eight users and a 30Mb internal 5 1/4 Rodime HD with our own power supply card. The software we developed in compiled Mbasic was ported onto PC''s and we had a Northstar that sent and received telex''s and read paper tape. We had a BBS running on another. In the late nineties I repaired a memory board for an Italian university that still used one on a science application. Great machines.
  - author: George Worley (Kentucky, USA)
    date: Thursday 9th June 2011
    text: |-
      I was going through my closet yesterday and found that I had a box of the floppies for the Northstar Horizon that I owned from late 1978 until it gave up the ghost in 1996. Most every where I look not much is mentioned about hard drives for this computer. I had two 10 megabyte hard drives $ not bootable $ hooked to this machine and at the time thought that I would never use up the space (now have a TB of music and thought that I never use a TB.) I also was running MP/M (multi-user version of CP/M $ got in late 1979) as the OS and I haven''t seen any mention of only any of the sites... had it is setup of 2 users. One of my favorite computers of the era.

      George
  - author: Ron Magazzu (New Jersey, USA)
    date: Tuesday 30th November 2010
    text: Still have my first North Star Horizon (1978). I wrote a medical office application and several games for this fine computer (with its great Basic language). I never sold the medical office package (still available), but my war games were successful for a couple years or so. The Horizon was my second college education which helped my launch a software company in the 1980''s which is still serving many customers, nationwide, in 2010. Thanks, North Star!
  - author: Brian Holmes (USA)
    date: Monday 4th January 2010
    text: I bought my first of 5 Horizons in 1979, it was serial $ 0004
  - author: Steve Brozosky (California)
    date: Wednesday 14th March 2007
    text: Brings back memories. Our high school had Horizons with Westminster Basic where we had 4 users to a computer (48K RAM, 1 floppy 60K drive). We had Flashwriter video cards where our teacher modified the driver so we had 2 users per monitor with split screen to save money. I took old vacuum tube televisions and converted them to computer monitors so we could save more money. I then built my own Horizon in 1979 form a kit and I still have this (56K RAM, Flashwriter, 3 floppy drives) and I still have my Anadex dot-matrix printer. In 1980 I got a job at Northstar in the support department. Talk about a great learning experience as an 18 year old. I helped people on the phone who built computers from kits and helped debug over the phone, diagnosed memory problems, other hardware issues, DOS, Pascal, CP/M. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work.
  - author: Dave Yates (Queensland, Australia)
    date: Wednesday 21st February 2007
    text: |-
      In 1977/8 I bought the first of four Horizons for use in our University department. The first one I interfaced to a Solartron Datalogger and ran them from a generator in the back of a 4WD vehicle to monitor meteorological parameters in sand dunes on a coastal island. It didn't like getting hot, but other wise was a great machine.

      The other Horizons were used for lab data processing, teaching and for office word-processing.
  - author: Jim Watt (Gibraltar)
    date: Sunday 14th January 2007
    text: We sold Horizons in Gibraltar, including the multi-user turbodos systems, which were excellent and had a 30Mb five inch disk. Our software was written in MSBasic and converted onto PC's without changing anything.
  - author: Paul D (UK)
    date: Wednesday 30th August 2006
    text: I did my final engineering degree project at Cardiff University on a NorthStar Horizon in Z80 assembler, the project wasn't finished but i managed to get a degree out of it! Probably the first program i ever wrote that wasn't copied from a magazine or book.
  - author: Robert Swenson (Amsterdam, New York USA)
    date: Saturday 18th June 2005
    text: I still have my North Star Horizon with 4 floppy disks, 32K of memory, and a 300 baud modem. I remember writing a basic program to do a sort of the dictionary, while my wife typed it in. I then wrote a program to do crossword puzzles with the sorted dictionary. We won enough money in contests to pay for the machine! It is almost like my first child.
  - author: Daniel Freeman (Brisbane, Australia)
    date: Thursday 2nd June 2005
    text: That was the machine! I couldn't remember it's name, and now it all comes flooding back. I attended Dane Court Technical-high/Grammar school in Broadstairs, Kent, UK. They had one of these running something called Smoke Signal Basic. I wasn't impressed by the capabilities of this machine at the time.
  - author: David Noell (Dallas Texas)
    date: Wednesday 26th May 2004
    text: I still use a Horizon to control 40 HVAC units on the roof of my office building. It operates a schedule for each unit, with capability for the tenant to phone the box for extra run time that is billed to him later. It has been operating since 1988. I am looking for a program to strip the rem statements from my program. Now May, 2004.
  - author: Colin Haxell (East London/Essex UK)
    date: Friday 30th January 2004
    text: I worked for a UK reseller. We also had a version in a steel case. We had our own CP/M and MP/M Integrated Ledger Package. We sold this in a package that included a Haeltine Monitor, a TI 810 printer, and an incredibly kitsch white plastic desk that held all the kit in place !
  - author: Wayne Kaniewski (USA)
    date: Thursday 25th September 2003
    text: I ran my medical practice for 3 years using a NorthStar Horizon which was state-of-the-art at the time, with a 64 kb RAM board and a 10 mb hard drive. My end-of-month billing routines took 16 hours to run with this machine (I still have 2 of them) and dBaseII. When I converted to an IBM 386 running FoxBase, the same routines ran in 7 minutes !
  - author: Chris Russell (Yarmouth, Maine USA)
    date: Wednesday 23rd July 2003
    text: My dad brought home a Northstar Horizon in 1977 and I first learned how to program using the ROM-based BASIC included with the system. If I recall correctly, we were using CP/M from Lifeboat Associates as an OS. This was a great computer. Too bad nobody builds ATX form-factor cases manufactured with speaker cabinet grade walnut and brush metal detailing.
  - author: Adam Grow (Atlanta, GA)
    date: Monday 14th April 2003
    text: I still have a working Northstar Horizon II. Running D/R CP/M O/S. Hooked to a Visual 300 CRT. Still runs dBaseII (Aston Tate). Long Live the dot prompt! Also have Wordstar, Multiplan, Microsoft BASCOM, and several vintage CP/M apps. We used to use these platforms at a satellite earth station to reformat streaming text based input into World Standard Teletext for placement in the Vertcal Blanking Interval of WTBS. One of the earliest uses was placing a stremaing Usenet feed onto one of the WTBS VBI lines for decoding by anyone receiving WTBS via cable throughout the US. This was around 1982...I think there were about 350 TCP/IP nodes in use then on the internet. Popular electronics had an article on how to build a decoder. Zenith actually marketed a line of TV sets with built-in decoders.
  - author: Yves Mc Donald (Ste-Therese, Quebec, Canada)
    date: Thursday 29th August 2002
    text: 'That computer introduced me to computer science when I was a teenager. Uncle Ray was building one in his kitchen along with other interesting machines such as COSMAC ELF and an Apple 2 clone. I had hands-on experinece with CP/M (note for young computer geeks: CP/M is MS-DOS ancestor), BASIC and Wordstar on that wooden box. It was a great time where computers were available in kits and we knew down to the chips what was going on inside but for customer support, you''d better ask your friends :)'
  oc_id: 50
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608224442/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=50
    date: '2023-06-08'
---

The Horizon was a S-100 bus based system. It was the first floppy-disc based system hobbyists could buy. In a case with a choice of wood or blue metal cover, the basic version included a 4 Mhz. Z80 microprocessor, 16 KB of RAM, a 90 KB 5''1/4 floppy drive with a controller card, a serial terminal interface and 12 S-100 slots. It was sold with the North Star Disc Operating System and a Basic interpreter allowing random and sequential disk files. The Horizon-2 version offered a second floppy-disc drive.

Any S-100 cards (compatible with Altair, Cromemco and many other systems) could be added to the system, but North Star provided its own additional 16 KB RAM and hardware floating point boards.

In 1979, original 90 KB floppy drives were replaced by Shugart 360 KB models. Northstar also offered an add-on box with two additional floppies, making a total of 4. The box had a matching walnut stained plywood cover.

---

More information from **Jim** who worked for NorthStar from 1979:\
The Horizon, Aaaahh.. What a beautiful machine. It had a big honkin' trasformer for a linear power supply. It was the first product incorporating its own disk controller (see below), a 4 Mhz 8080, 4 KB of RAM standard, and 1 or 2 Shugart 5.25" floppies. RAM could be expanded to 16 Kb.

The Horizon evolved with a faster (8 Mhz) Zilog Z80, and 64 KB of RAM. Then there was an accounting system called TSS/A that made the Horizon multi-user. It consisted of the main processor board, with multiple memory cards in the bus, and an 8 port I/O card for the other terminals.

The final crowning glory of the Horizon was a multi-user sytem called Turbo-Dos. This used the original processor as a controller, and auxiliary processor boards were added in for each user. They were called 8/16, because they could run at 8 or 16 bits. Each user had their own processor and memory (64K) and connected via boardlets from the main machine.

Another intersting fact - NorthStar was one of the early adopters of the hard disk drive. It was called the HD-18 - 18 Megabytes in an 18 inch platter. The drive was as big as a very large suitcase, and weighed about 70 pounds! You could daisy chain up to 4 of these, but the starting current was 13 amps, and when you lit them up all the lights in the place would dim.

NorthStar's first product was a disk controller for the S-100 bus, namely for Altairs. It controlled Shugart 5-1/4" drives, but using a proprietary format of 10 sectors hard-sectored floppies. This meant that the floppies needed 11 holes near the center, (1 index, and 10 sector markers) which was not the norm. Most floppies had one index hole

**Richard Randalll** sdpecifies:\
I belive North Star's first product was an S-100 board that provided a floating-point processor, rather than the micro-disk subsystem, which followed shortly thereafter.