website/content/museum/xerox-820-ii.md

---
title: Xerox 820-II
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- Z80A
params:
  name: 820-II
  image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820-2_1.jpg
  company: /companies/xerox
  company_name: Xerox
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: 820-II
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Xerox
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1983'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: '1985'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: Basic 80 delivered on disk
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: AZERTY/QWERTY, full-stroke keyboard with separated keyboard, 74 keys
  - label: CPU
    value: Z80A
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4 Mhz
  - label: RAM
    value: 64 kb
  - label: ROM
    value: 8 kb
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: |-
      80 x 24 (character matrix : 5 x 7)\
      12'' black & white monitor
  - label: COLORS
    value: Black & white
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 'Main unit / monitor : 32,8 x 38,1 x 34,3 cm / 13,6 kg'
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Serial 9600 bauds, Internal Expansion Slot, External Floppy Connector
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: one 8'' disk-drive (DD/DS) (320 KB) and one 8'' hard-disk (10MB).
  - label: OS
    value: CP/M 2.2
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in PSU
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Additional disk-drives, printer, modem, 16-bit board
  - label: PRICE
    value: 9832 (France, 83)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - hardware
  photos:
  - title: SYSTEM
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_system_1.jpg
  - title: XEROX LOGO
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_logo_1.jpg
  - title: REAR
    subtitle: ''
    text: This picture shows how the different parts are interconnected. Some cords are a bit too short.
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820-2_rear_1.jpg
  - title: CONNECTORS CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: Main unit and FD unit connectors
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_connectcloseup_1.jpg
  - title: DISKS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      These are the 8" double-sided disk-drive (980kb) and the Shugart 10Mb 8" whinchester-technology hard-disk. Only 8MB of the drive were usable due to the 8192KB limitation of CP/M.\
      It was possible to daisy chain additional drives to the main unit.
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820-2_disks_1.jpg
  - title: 'INSIDE FD/HD UNIT #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_insidefd_1.jpg
  - title: 'INSIDE FD/HD UNIT #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_insidefd_2.jpg
  - title: BOOT-UP SCREEN
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_screenshot_1.jpg
  - title: MASS STORAGE CONFIGURATION
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/xerox_820ll_screenshot_2.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: PRICE LIST
    subtitle: ''
    text: This reseller advert shows the initial price list from 1982 and the new prices of June 1983, about 40% less expensive.
    image: /media/museum/pubs/xerox_820_pricelist_1.jpg
  hardware:
  - title: DIABLO 630
    subtitle: Printer
    text: This printer is an option of the Model 820. It can print 132 character per line at a speed of 40 cps. It is bi-directional.
    image: /media/museum/hardware/xerox_820-2_printer_1.jpg
  comments:
  - author: Larry Sh. (USA)
    date: Sunday 7th August 2022
    text: Again, not a "bad" computer per se, but much better was out there in 1983. 8" floppies where already sliding into obsolescence. Some of the same great software was becoming available for the new IBM PC and PC/XT and the new Apple //e had some great productivity software coming soon. This was a case of too little improvement coming too late. A Kaypro 10 was a better deal that was at least as good, or better, at a lower price and excellent build quality. Xerox leadership was caught in the 1970''s or something.
  - author: Yee
    date: Wednesday 1st December 2021
    text: ok boomer
  - author: Joe (Tj, Mex) (Mexico)
    date: Friday 14th April 2017
    text: Nice to see my original post at bottom of page after all these years, I still have that old computer, thanks to all who run and contribute to this site.
  - author: Bla Bla Bla My daddy worked for Xerox...
    date: Thursday 24th November 2016
    text: 'Keep in mind that this low quality system was produced at the same time that GUI system: Apple Macintosh and Xerox Star were being sold...'
  - author: Bla Bla Bla My daddy worked for Xerox...
    date: Thursday 24th November 2016
    text: |-
      Oh well, having done even more research...

      Apple Lisa and Macintosh teams at Apple Computer included former members of the Xerox developers.

      Xerox did try to sell the Xerox Star, which has similar MacIntosh features, however:

      Xerox Star Cost: $16,000 - $24,000\
      Apple Macintosh: $2,495

      Which one can you afford?
  - author: Bla Bla Bla My daddy worked for Xerox...
    date: Thursday 24th November 2016
    text: |-
      See my comment on: X XEROX 820

      Unlike the 820, this thing was almost a bearable over priced piece of 1982 space junk.

      Please look up Xerox Alto on Google.

      From a technical perspective, the 1973 Xerox Alto can be considered the first Macintosh, since Steve Jobs copied it when he made the first Apple Lisa.

      Even when Apple computer stole the Alto, Xerox could have resumed research and blown them out of the water with a new Alto before the Apple Mac started.

      Instead they they played it safe, and mimicked/copied the CP/M and IBM platforms.

      "Bad move, Space Cuuuu-dit." - Gorf
  - author: Laurie Bennett (Illinois, USA)
    date: Tuesday 2nd June 2015
    text: My aunt was a VP for Xerox in the St. Louis, MO area in the late 70s and early 80s. We had the privilege of acquiring the Xerox 820-II computer with the Diablo 630 Daisywheel Printer and I have the whole set in good working condition with numerous floppy disks for accounting and computing! Our family was one of the "home test pilot program families'' for the Xerox 820-II. I have all the original manuals, cords and everything.
  - author: Arun Baheti (Los Angeles, California, USA)
    date: Saturday 17th May 2014
    text: 'Miles Attacca (USA): Swap pins 2 and 3 on the rs232 cable. Terminal mode will work fine. If needed you can adjust the speed of the port (I think "B" is the command? You can hit the help key for the basic functions list). I used mine as a terminal and also to move files between machines often. $arun'
  - author: Arun Baheti (Los Angeles, California, USA)
    date: Saturday 17th May 2014
    text: |-
      The 820-II and 16/8 are where I cut my teeth in computing (started with a -I and got upgraded). The -II did add some graphic capabilities over the -I, and we were able to run some (then) cutting edge graphics programs for business graphing (as add ons to dBase) and even print them on the daisy wheel Diablo 630 printer. There were also a surprising array of graphics oriented games, but limited by the block graphics which made more sense for business applications.

      I had the 8" drive system, and eventually got a hard drive (Shugart sa1004 maybe?) that was a whopping 10meg. I still have technical manuals and software on 5" and 8" disk $ somehow I can''t part with them as momentos even though the computers were passed on long ago.

      I''d love to get my hands on one to play around a little bit.
  - author: Mikael Larsson (Sweden)
    date: Friday 2nd May 2014
    text: I did some programming for Xerox in the 80''s. A user friendly form maker for the laser printer 2700. One of the first tihing I did was to connect an on/off button for the disk drives. Now, after I have downloaded some documents that was unknown for me earlier, I had to do a reunion with my 820-II. I love block graphics! My challenge is to make the best block graphics program ever. /Mikael
  - author: Michael Rutkaus (USA )
    date: Wednesday 9th May 2012
    text: Dave, it''s mrutkausattgeemale.com, translated into normal usage! Mike
  - author: Bryan (USA)
    date: Sunday 15th April 2012
    text: |-
      I had one of these for a few years - probably was about 1993 or so. It was a gimme from an office supply store my mother worked at. Had some bootable software but not much else.

      These were basically Big Board clones, same as the Kaypro series. I remember reading that somewhere, probably Micro C or something, and decided to try some of my Kaypro Software. With a little bit of terminal escape code modifications, most Kaypro stuff would run on a 820-II. Uniform was no problem, from what I remember.

      Not sure what happened to that machine!
  - author: Dave Clark
    date: Saturday 11th February 2012
    text: How does one get in touch with you Mike ?
  - author: Michael Rutkaus (winchester va usa)
    date: Friday 9th December 2011
    text: i have what i believe is a IBM386 card for the xerox 820II, free to anyone who sends me a self addressed padded envelope with sufficient ($3?) postage attached. ask me first to see if anyone else has asked.
  - author: Michael Rutkaus (winchester va usa)
    date: Friday 9th December 2011
    text: i have what i believe is a IBM386 card for the xerox 820II, free to anyone who sends me a self addressed padded envelope with sufficient ($3?) postage attached. ask me first to see if anyone else has asked.
  - author: Michael Rutkaus (winchester va usa)
    date: Friday 9th December 2011
    text: i have what i believe is a IBM386 card for the xerox 820II, free to anyone who sends me a self addressed padded envelope with sufficient ($3?) postage attached. ask me first to see if anyone else has asked.
  - author: Miles Attacca (USA)
    date: Sunday 9th March 2008
    text: Anybody know how to get an 820-II to talk to a modern computer? I need to build a null modem cable so I can set it up as a terminal for a Linux machine, and while I do have a manual with the pin-out information for both serial channels, I don't know which wires are required for it to function properly. I'd like to do it in the basic terminal mode, without having to hook up the hard disk and load CP/M.
  - author: David Griffith (Bakersfield CA/United States)
    date: Tuesday 21st August 2007
    text: The Xerox 820-II in my posession actually has single-sided disk drives.
  - author: Kai Nilakari (Earth)
    date: Tuesday 21st August 2007
    text: The X820-II had also a hardware ms-dos option. It consisted of an add-on board fit into the monitor/cpu. Of course the keyboard mapping was different to a pc keyboard, but ms-dos operating system was possible. Unfortunately I've destroyed my X820 about four years ago because both A and B floppy drives didn't work anymore.
  - author: Bob Chisholm (USA)
    date: Thursday 22nd September 2005
    text: I also worked for Xerox (from 1969 to 2004) and bought an 820 II through our employee purchase plan. It had a function for use as a typewriter. When booting you could select that funtion, turn on your printer and type away. I purchased mine with a Diablo 640 printer, DBase, Wordstar, SuperCalc and some brand of BASIC. If I remember correctly, the total cost was around $3600 US (maybe closer to $4000).
  - author: Joe (Tj, Mex)
    date: Saturday 7th December 2002
    text: |-
      Well what can I say about this piece of history got one at home with printer (40 lbs) and the drives too.. I paid $200. US for it 5 years ago, you could say this was my first computer after the C64 ...LOL when I was pluggin everything in and turnig the power on, well, heard a Beep and saw a command prompt with bout 5 options then I realized that this was not a very good buy! but when I started reading the manuals (oh yeah lots of them...) I fell in love u could say with this piece of history. Found lots of Appl. Database (DbaseII), Wordprocessors (WordStar), Spredsheets (SuperCalc), a bunch of disks (8") with lots of files. programs, assemblers, linkers the works.... Oh yes did I MENTION THAT A LOT OF DOCS CAME WITH THIS BUY, everything describing tha OS (CPM) Sys calls (ROM) and lots of Info for developing new programs. Well nuff bout that if u need info about this puter gimme call.

      PS . when I was experimenting I accedently ran the format command on the Sys disk (really dumb) well not really u see I booted from drive B with the sys disk and put another disk with no info on A, then I executed Format A or somethig like that and well it did.... u see I later found out that the boot drive will always be assigned as A.. Ahhhh this I found out later when I read the Docs.. Well if u guys and gals can help me out with the sys disk or files I would apreciate your help (sorry for my spelling)

      Thx
  oc_id: 487
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230530203445/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=487
    date: '2023-05-30'
---

The model 820-II is basically a [model 820](/museum/xerox-820/) with a higher clock rate (4 MHz instead of 2.5 MHz) and a 8" double density/double side disk-drive and hard-disk instead of the the two basic 8" Single density/single side disk-drive of the first [model 820](/museum/xerox-820/). But the hard-disk is said to be very noisy and the dual disks weigh more than 38 pounds!

Nearly all the hardware is housed within the monitor, a bit like a [Macintosh](/museum/apple-macintosh/). The separate keyboard is linked to the monitor by a "not-long-enough" cord. The 8" disk-drive and hard-disk are mounted in a separate huge box. The 10MB hard drive for example was boxed with an 8" drive. A real-time clock is included in the hardware. Green screens were available in all models since the screen/processor case was common to all.

Like its predecessor, the 820-II is well furnished in software of all sorts. Thanks to its CP/M compatibility nearly every profession can find a suitable program. A lot of languages and OS were also available (CP/M, Basic 80, C Basic 2, Assembler Macro 80, Cobol 80, Short 80, TTY communication, 3270/3780 emulation).\
But the 820-II has no real graphic possibilities nor sound, and a small RAM capacity (64 KB) for a professional computer. Above all it was quite expensive compared to its competitors.

There was also WP dedicated versions with unique key caps.

A 16-bit expansion board was released to upgrade the 820-II, so that its performance would nearly match the new Xerox computer(the [16/8](/museum/xerox-8-16/)), and also allowed the 820 to work under DOS. At the start of the year 1985, Xerox would definately leave the micro-computer market and stop the production of the 820.

---

**Contributors:** Jeremy Wilcox, Bronislaw Opacki Jr

**Dale Carpenter** clarifies:\
I started working for Xerox in 1983 as a PC tech in the Xerox Service Center a sevice/support part to the retail store they had back then.\
820-II's were the next step after 820's they were already double density instead of upgraded like many 820's were. They also supported double sided drives.\
The drive choices were 5.25" dual drives single or double sided, 8" dual drives also single or double sided and the top was a 8"double sided floppy paired with a 8" 10Mb Shugart hard drive.The 8" double density, 2-sided floppies had a capacity of 960K which was a lot for back then.